road-river rain festival
As always the clouds appeared suddenly and out of nowhere. With awe and full of anxious anticipation many watched the high towers of clouds build. Horses neigh as they are saddled quickly and made ready. The light grows dim and the wind picks up.Dust covers the lands that lie between the Sundering Mountains and the Great Desert . And it also settles on the streets of the cities and on the faces of its peoples. But with water being a rare and expensive good in these parts and most of the population living in poverty, cleaning and washing is done rarely, causing the poeple to be covered in a layer of dust and sweat.
Then suddenly it breaks and the whole city holds their breath. The heavens open and the festivities have begun.
Wen the rare rains come, they come in heavy rain- and thunderstorms, washing the cities and smaller settlements clean. And all the peoples will stand outside under the open sky and be washed by the rain as well, drinking in the water and thanking their cruel desert gods for this blessing.
The rain however rarely lasts for more than a day and the sun will reclaim its place alone in the sky, leaving the world below clean and washed and wet for a few moments.
Backgrounds
The festival is one of beauty and of the children. But also, it is a festival of harvest, and a very special harvest at that. To understand that harvest, one must understand, that in many parts of the world, the people of that region are considered beautiful and on the slave markets of first haven bay they fetch a high price and can be shipped even as far as the riverlands.With all the dust on their faces however beauty is hard to see. But with the beginning of the rain, the hunt is on. Not only slavetraders but also rich lords looking for sport will issued from the gates of the palace, looking for the most beautiful amongst the children. Most of the children will even present themselves as well as possible. Loosing their family might be hard, but leaving their homes comes with the promises of a better life.
Many parents encourage that sort of thinking in their children, knowing that they cannot afford to keep and feed them and also knowing they will be payment is due for anyone that will be taken. But by all the money they might get for giving away their children, they do it out of love for them, hoping to grant them a better life somewhere else.
The three stages
Stage 1 - the hunt
With the beginning of the rain, the festivities of the river-road rain festival - short also kown as rain festival - beginn. Konis is the city where these celebrations most famously and most glamorously take place. But many other cities and even smaller settlemets of the region follow these tradition.
Those out on the hunt spur their horses to a fast chase through the streets, stopping only for a moment when they catch sight of a beautiful face. This can be hard to see in the heavy rain but there is no time to loose, the rivals are never far back and the hunting season is short.
To those they deem pretty enough and those with the best statue they hand out small pieces of coloured fine cloth, commonly silk. Each colour is appointed to one person before the festival beginns.
When the rain ends, so does the first part of the festival.
Stage 2 - the Choosing
With the return of the sun those that where granted a cloth will go to the market place, show it to the book-keeper and sent to a certain areal of the market place. Each of the children will hold on tight to their cloth as many without cloth will also gather there and attempt to steal one for themselves.
At each appointed areal of the market place will be one of the partakers of the hunt, the one with the appointed colour that the children where given. Here takes place the "Choosing", the final decision of who will be granted to bring money and honour to their parents and say their last farewells to them. Stolen cloths will often fail here when the thief fails to be to the taste of the choosing lord or slave trader.
Here now is given a band of cloth to the chosen ones that will be tied around their wrists. They have the same colours as the smaller pieces of cloth before. These bands are the true keys that all hope for. Once it is tied around ones wrist, the children become untouchable. Stealing the bands is impossible without ripping them and a ripped band has no worth at all.
Once the "Choosing" is done, the second part of the Festival has ended. After being told a date and time to be at the gates ready to depart, they will return home with the money for their partents.
Stage 3 - Farewells
In the following night the third part of the festival takes place, the farewell celebrations. It is common for the parents to buy a great last meal for their soon to leave children from the money they have brought. Family and friends are invited as well so that the whole city celebrates. This is done so the children will remember their homes and their families and maybe return someday (preferrably when they have become rich men or the wifes of such).
The next morning commonly already holds last farewells for most of the chosen children. Early in the morning they will will go down the city to its gates, accompanied by the cries and laments of their loving parents that commonly will never see their children again nor ever know what has come of them.
Why the children?
On rare occasions, adults are also chosen during the festival. But for the main part it is children that will be on the streets during the festival and it is children that will get chosen. This is due to many reasons.
But the most important of these is the upholding of traditions that come with their believe and religion. To themse peoples the rain is one of the rare blessings by the cruel desert gods. It is a streak of mercy shown to their young, a gift to those yet unscorned by sin and all the evil in the world. But cruel as the desert gods are, nothing comes without a price, not even the gift of rain. And thus with the bringing of joy and life to the land and its people, there comes also pain and loss. And as it is the children who are granted the blessed gift of cleansing water from the heavens above, it is their due, their duty, to repay their gods.
To the parents and all other elders falls only the responsibility to stand back and watch with guarding eyes that tradition is upheld. As the blessing is sent for their children, so is this festival is held in their childrenĀ“s honors. It is the most sacred intend of this festival to wash not only the dirt but also sorrow and hardship of life from the children, be it even for a short time. And cleansed from this, their true worth will shine and be seen again by all eyes that had before been blinded by wearyness and hopelessness. This in turn is the blessing granted to the parents. And in turn they repay their gods with the loss of their most beloved.
Primary Related Location
The name of the festival comes from the huge amounts of rain that fall in a short time, turning the roads of cities into rivers. These rivers - flowing always out of the cities from the way these are built - are also ment to symbolise the leaving of the children.
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