Feast of Reserve

Also referred to as the "Flame Rising Festival" (or just "Rising Festival") the well-known Feast of Reserve is the traditional harvest celebration that occurs around the main harvest of Isturoth. The alternative name for the Feast comes from the fact that this period of celebration usually accompanied the baking of barley into bread.

Observance

Before the recent rise of Isturoth's industrialisation, the cycle of seasons regulated the lives of most, if not all, Isturians. The Feast of Reserve is normally an occasion for communal enjoyment, celebrating the end of the growing season and a time of plenty. Performers and artists travelled an annual circuit from town to town, assembling at local festivals, trading and entertaining in the form of dance, music and feats of talent.
In rapidly expanding industrial towns and cities, which were designed to support work and production rather than to provide the space and infrastructure for fun and recreation, could not facilitate these celebrations as they once had. With the population on the rise and migration to cities breaking down the social fabric of rural villages, there is less ambition than ever for this once-beloved pastime.
Additionally, a growing class system turned the public house into a vital social centre for the lower classes, as unsanitary conditions made potable drinking water harder to come by than alchohol. Low wages and long hours left workers with little time and money for any activity other than work. The rise of industrialisation in the cities imposed a new concept of time divorced from seasonal patterns.
While in more rural regions the Rising Festival still continues as it once did, there are many (particularly those from the higher classes that no longer participate in the harvesting of crops) who see the Feast of Reserve as an old-fashioned tradition that is slowly but surely dying out.