Spring Festival
From FiranMUX
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Overview: Spring Festival
The Spring Festival is the first of two Firan Festivals hosted at Sarkaran each year at the end of the cold season (May). It is considered to give special emphasis to the Goddess Eesha. It is a joyous time of celebration for members of all clans when the passing Winter is paid a long-awaited adieu. There is dancing, offerings are made and seeds are brought to Priests for blessing all in hopes of winning the Gods' favor in the way of good weather and harvests. The Spring also marks the beginning of further aggression from Shamibelians and so prayers and offerings are made during this time asking for peace and victory during the week-long celebration as well as military success in the offenses to follow the festival, when Republic soldiers return to the front lines to continue their counter-attack against their mortal enemies.
Spring Festival Attire
Clothes and Flowers
Men and women dress in their best, usually new Spring finery in congruence with the newness of Spring. Commoners who cannot afford new clothes at the very least wash out and mend their old garments and adorn themselves with whatever accessories and flowers they can find. Linens are worn instead of wool for the warmer weather and nobles are quick to wear their silks for the first time since late Summer. Spring flower garlands, worn around the head and neck, become popular across all classes for men and women alike, and at this time and women - especially young women - are hardly ever seen without a bouquet of some sort. Those of considerable means, particularly the middle and noble classes, also indulge in fragrant perfumes with sunny, Spring scents made from the budding new flowers of the season which are popular symbols of status.
Masquerades
Masquerades (or Masked Balls) are popular events during festival time. During such events, upper-middle class Firans can push social limits and indulge in wearing any silks or platinum they might be able to afford without any social backlash -- after all, no one can see their faces. In fact, most social boundaries are thrown to the wind and members of Firan society mingle in anonymity so long as masks are worn, which makes these events particular favorites. Masks are usually provided for those who cannot afford their own.
Spring Pentathlons
In times past, the prizes for winning pentathlons during the Spring Festival were either one million stenis, a plot of Republic land or the chance to marry any available person in the Republic. In 35 A.U., the stenis prize was changed to a suit of iron armor (and the corresponding iron permit), but the other prizes remain the same. In regards to the marriage prize, the Spring Festival is a celebration of Eesha, and refusal to grant a Pentathlon winner his or her choice of a spouse is considered an affront to the Gods.
Festival Peace
Because of the intensely spiritual nature of the festivals, they are a time held sacred by both the divine and the mortal. In the interest of maximizing and celebration honoring the gods, there has been an unwritten law of peace during festival time.
To call festival peace a 'law', however, is a misnomer. It is a divine commandment so ingrained into the culture of the clans that it would be inconceivable even to write it down. Men who attempt to slaughter each other on the battlefield drop their weapons and drink side by side the wine from the festival tables. Firans of different clans are expected to throw aside their differences and consider each other brothers and sisters under the gods. Executions are stayed, and those arrested are spared physical punishment until the festival's end. When peace is broken, disaster strikes and the gods themselves take notice.
During the Fall Festival of 24 A.U., Lord Philander was executed by Lady Proxy Junia of the Bear Clan. The Firan people rioted in outrage and Junia was forced to surrender her proxyship. The gods withdrew their favor from the Firans; chickens refused to lay, women could not conceive, alcohol grew potent to the point of poisonous, the sun refused to shine and the eternal light in Eesha's temple went out. It took the Firans much hard work and prayer to earn the favor back. A repeat would be catastrophic.
(OOC Note: Breaches of festival peace should be reported to staff via @request. Please provide a log as well.)
Categories: Events | Theme | History | Cockatrice Clan | Gold Dragon Clan | Religion | Festivals
