Honey Cookies
Made as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood for Piromese youth
History
The tradition comes from the celebration of the continued prosperity and mild surface conditions of the poles. Bees are considered a holy animal because each bee knows it's role, works for the betterment of the hive, and is incredibly ordered. They are indicate the harmony that Gao's order can create and the sweet sustenance the order can produce. By growing flowers to support the honey production, the youth indicates their ability and commitment to upholding an ordered society. Gao then judges how the youth will contribute to the community through the flavor of the cookie, acting as a kind of auspicious blessing or curse as the youth sets out on their adult life.
As there have been increased modernization and a deviation from the church of The Disciples of Goa , youth may not grow the bees themselves anymore, opting to instead buy the honey. There are also options to buy the cookies. While buying the honey is tolerated, buying the cookies is considered cheating. Thus anyone who chooses to buy their materials does so surreptitiously and does their best to not let anyone know. It may be that they simply don't have room for a hive or garden, in which case, more compassionate churches/congregations will have shared hives and gardens the youth can use to complete the ritual. This tends to have more social importance for wealthy and noble families.
Execution
Piromese youth must grow flowers for bees and then collect the honey. They use this honey to make honey cookies. The flowers the bees feasted upon lends the flavor to the cookie. The cookies are often stamped with the impressions of flowers or inscribed with floral designs. The youth then presents the cookies to their congregation, specifically the priest. The different flavors have different meanings for the youth's future as an adult. Any flavor can be read as good or misfortune depending on the priest's interpretation.
Participants
It depends on how devout the youth and their family are. If they are devout, then the youth will bake enough cookies for the entire congregation to evaluate them. If not, then it usually family and friends. Either way, there needs to be a lead judge, normally a priest, who will evaluate the flavor for its meaning.
Observance
The rite takes most of the growing season as the youth must start a bee hive and garden in the spring, care for them over the summer, and then harvest in the fall. The actual baking typically happens in late summer or early fall, but there's no specific date. With practices easing so that youth may buy the honey or even the cookies, the rite can happen anytime. However, it is still typically held in the fall since deviating from that timeline indicates that the youth took a shortcut and is looked down upon.
The meaning behind different flavors
- Overly sweet = prosperity, wealth, divine favor
- Rose = love, dreamy, graceful
- Lavender = peaceful, sedate
- Peony = lucky, optimism, happiness
- Lemon = bold, leadership, trailblazer
- Mint = artistic, inventor, curiousity
- Spicy or peppery = dramatic, intense, change maker
- No flavor = humble, service, demur
Important Locations
Related Organizations
Related Ethnicities
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
This is such a cute tradition! I love that it's a whole farm-to-table process that lets them enjoy the fruits of their labor. I have an article in my own world where I talk a little about different types of monofloral honeys and their properties, and it was really interesting to do research on. Is there a specific age at which youths participate in it? Or is it more of a yearly thing they all do? And are different flavors meant to reflect the traits of the youth making that particular kind? Or do they choose to make a particular flavor in a more aspirational way (i.e. someone chooses to make overly sweet cookies because they aspire to wealth and prosperity)?
Thank you! It's more of a one time event, like a sweet-sixteen, to represent the youth's transition from child to adult. I hadn't defined the specific age for when it happens, but I was thinking early/mid-teen years. As for the flavor meanings, I was intending it to be more fortune-telling. If a youth wanted a particular outcome, they could tailor their garden to be blooms that might make certain flavors more or less common. But it was more that the process of producing the honey would reflect what kind of adult they'll be and the cookie flavor would be the judgement of that process. That's why it's taboo to buy the honey/cookies because you're skipping the process, essentially cheating at the evaluation. I hope that was clear. Thanks for the great questions and interest!