Human Sacrifice at Solla's Festival

The festival of Solla is a pretty significant event, even if it's pretty thoroughly dwarfed in every aspect by the All Festival, because Solla is a pretty significant deity.

In the Lamaran faith, Solla is the sun. Solla is not a god but one of the spirits born from Yaldabaoth ( Lamaran Religion ), also making them the God of God's sibling, the God of Gods being considered both a god and a spirit cos stuff and things.

The festival of Solla is a yearly occasion, although once every 5 years the festival is merged with that of the All Festival and things get really funky then, and includes all sorts of fun things.

Like sacrificing a child for every day of the year.

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History

The festival is a merger of multiple summer solstice festivals that were streamlined over time into sole worship of Solla and deities associated with them.

Execution

There are a lot of rituals within the festival but the craziest is the public human sacrifice.

365 children, one for every day of the year until the next festival, are put on an alter and their blood drained into a great rink. Oil is thrown into the blood and it is set ablaze. The bodies of the children are placed in a crypt below Solla's temple.

An additional child, who is considered holy and lives in luxury for the last year of their life, is used during leap years. This child must have noble or royal blood, usually being taken from low nobility who can't do anything about it, although recently low nobles have enjoyed the ability to bribe the royal government into using a Brijilds - The Fire Family child in place of theirs.

The children are almost all slaves, street kids and the like who were sold or kidnapped for use as sacrifices, although there was an instance of a royal child being deliberately snuck into the ranks of the sacrifices as an indirect form of assassination.

Components and tools

The draining is done with specially crafted obsidian knives. Those performing the task must wear white and if any blood gets on their clothes rather than going into the rink they must burn those clothes as well.

Participants

It's a massive ritual with a huge crowd watching, usually cheering. This is largely because watching the sacrifice isn't mandatory for anyone not in the clergy or given certain temporary ceremonial roles (such roles going to nobles and royalty) and so most of the people watching are doing so because they enjoy it.

Other than that most of the people at the festival don't like seeing the human sacrifices and so focus on all the party games and stuff like that rather than going to the sacrifice.

Observance

On the day of the Sun Dip, a day every year in which the sun seemingly dips closer to earth and there's a heatwave lasting a few minutes. They wait all day for the sun dip and then start the bleeding, preferably before the sun has finished the dip.