Bathing on the river Akres

Blatians have a lot of rituals for keeping bad luck away from them. For example one of them is to wear a resonant stone on your pocket, or making the symbol of an star on your body. But by far the most famous is the ritual bathing at the river Akres, that takes place every second day of the month of Kelsia, the 8th month according to the Blatian calendar during the festival to the goddess Tyr.

A very old tradition

Bathing during the festival to the goddess Tyr is a very old tradition in Blati. It dates back to the origins of the capital as colony of the Ikarians, and probably it goes even further in time probably relating to the indigenous Kallian peoples (distant cousins of the Ikarians, also a davidovian people). The presence of water and its purifying properties can also be related to, for example, the fresh water stream that you find at the sanctuary of the goddess in the distant Banias .
There is also an story that is possibly related to this idea of the bath for get rid of the bad luck. According to Ikarian/Blatian Mythology, a young prince of a lost kingdom in Karia, called Maphyas was very famous for being a seductor of women. One day he was hunting a deer together with his dog, and after he hit one with an arrow he ordered his dog to pursue it. But the dog didn't return and it was no trace of him wherever he looked. So he entered into the forest searching and calling for his companion. He heard a song in the distance, it seemed as the voice of a woman.
He went to the place where the voice came from and he quietly look across the vegetation to find a naked young woman with brown hair bathing on a little pond. He suddenly became captivated by the beauty of the girl, but he then looked at the right of the pond and found the corpse of his dog killed by an arrow and also saw a bow near the clothes of the girl. He then was consumed by anger, he loved his dog and this girl had killed it. She had to pay for it!. So he took his knife, approach the girl from behind and jumped at her. But the shiny blade of his knife reflected into the water and the girl quickly evade the attacker. But the girl was not a normal girl, it was the goddess Pyria, the goddess of fire, who was bathing at the pond after travelling into the woods searching for an special type of wood for her arrows.
Outrageous at the behaviour of Maphyas,and after having captured him with her magic, she inquired why he had attacked her, and when he responded that it was because she had killed his dog she answered that she did so because the dog was attacking a deer, one of her totemic animals. And with these words he curses Maphyas:

Now you that dare to attack me while i was bathing, and because of the shiny light of your blade in the water that was safe of being injured, because i cannot be killed by a mortal, i condemn you to not see the light again and not to wonder this earth anymore as you shall live in the darkness and see no more

And that is how, according to their mythology, Blatians believe that moles were born, in fact the word for mole in Blatian and Oronai is Maphyas. And the fact that it was the light of the blade reflected into the water what alerted Pyria, this was considered as an example of good luck and that is how, according to Blatian mythology, the idea of bathing oneself seven times (because seven is a sacred number) is synonymous of good luck.

How the ritual is performed

At first the ritual consisted in going to the margins of the Akres river and submerge oneself 7 times. After this, it was considered that the person was protected against bad luck for the rest of the year.
In 321 AP a temple in honour to Tyr was built on Ullia hill by order of Emperor Mayorian II, that at the time was known as Temple of our most serene lady of the Pure Water, and today known as the temple of the Roses (because of its gardens with roses). From that temple, water was collected from an spring and then transported to the Imperial palace where the Emperor and the rest of the Imperial family, specially the princess will bathe with that water perfumed by roses, also from the temple gardens. This custom permeated into the lower classes and became part of the ritual. Since then, people went to this temple and collected petals of roses from the temple and also water.

Once you have collected water and roses from the temple you go to the river, undress and then take the water and roses in a bowl and enter into the river, you let the water take the aroma of the roses and then you bathe with it. After you have done this, you then submerge yourself 7 times into the river. And that’s it! you're not only purified for assisting to the procession that carries the statue of the goddess and her relics that takes place that day but you are also protected against bad luck for the rest of the year!

After this ritual and the procession there is always a banquet in every neighbourhood consisting of meat and bread with honey.