Common Culture: Holidays In Eden

Posted: December 26, 2010 | Author: Dennis N. Santana | Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, RPG, Spirits Of Eden |Leave a comment »

The Adelian year has 12 months, each divided into 30 days. Each month is special to one or other of the races, and usually declared their “racial month.” Adelians celebrate a variety of holidays, where they hold festivals and relax from their work, revere and make obeisances to specific spirits, or keep alive certain cultural traditions. The following are the months of Eden, in ascending order from first to twelfth, and the holidays in each month.

Dawnmoon

1st Day: New Year’s Obeisances. The Adelians take each new year very seriously and dedicate a day to quiet reverence. On this day, most Adelians stay home with their families and rest quietly, thanking the Spirits that a new year has been granted them.

14th Day: The Appearance Day of Lord Ravindra. The burns brightly upon the new year, and the appearance day of Lord Ravindra is celebrated. It is said that Lord Ravindra revealed himself to the mortals by ending two weeks of darkness that had befallen Adel a thousand years ago, and assuring them that they would live to see many new years. This day is celebrated with a festival in which spicy foods are consumed.

25th Day: Ainyu Holiday. The Ainyu are a wonderful people and they are cherished and celebrated on this day. Ainyu in the community are given small gifts.

Azuremoon

3rd Day: The Appearance Day of Lord Rashine. Everyone gathers around the river or at the nearest beach for a day of waterfront amusement in the name of Lord Rashine. It is said that Rashine quieted the raging rivers of the world to allow the Adelians to utilize them. This day is celebrated by eating fish and playing in the water.

18th Day: Damakran Holiday. The strong Damakran have contributed much to Adelian history and society, and are celebrated on this day. They are expected to take the day off from work, but many are too restless to stay put.

Various Days: Thaw Festival. In villages where there are snowy winters, the day the snow begins to recede is celebrated as a Thaw Festival. Snow is flavored and eaten.

Feymoon

2nd Day: Iomadi Holiday. The Iomadi are the most numerous of the Adelians, and they celebrate a great festival on this day. Everyone gets the day off from work, mostly because it is unfair that the majority of workers would be off, but Damakran and Cuporo and so on would still have to work. So everyone gets the day off.

9th Day: Lover’s Holiday. A romantic day where all couples strengthen their bonds. Gifts are exchanged, and couples are expected to be given time alone to themselves. Those who haven’t found romance hold a match-making festival where people are paired blind.

21st Day: The Appearance Day of Lady Arclinne. The Iomadi goddess of community, love and wisdom enjoys a great celebration on this day. She will randomly visit a place on this day, it is said, to attend her own holiday — so everyone should make the best festival possible. It is said that during times of strife at the beginning of the world, Arclinne appeared to the Adelians and taught them to organize and support one another.

Greenmoon

3rd Day: The Appearance Day of Lady Paikar. Also treated as a sort of agricultural festival where nature is revered, the appearance day of Lady Paikar is celebrated with a feast of floral delights. No meat, onions or garlic can be consumed this day. Lady Paikar appeared to the hunter-gathering Adelians of the earliest period, and taught them that seeds planted can be cared for and grow to give them a reliable source of food.

4th-7th Days: Spring Festival. Starting with the Appearance Day of Lady Paikar, the Adelians take five days off in the spring to celebrate the return of their verdant landscapes, warmer climate and looking forward to the rest of the year. In many places, it is also the beginning of the planting season for many important crops. The Andalian Census reports that the majority of children in rural villages in their Southland, seem to be conceived during the Spring Festival, with Lover’s Day a distant second.

8th Day: Cuporo Racial Day. The Spring Festival ends with the Cuporo Racial Day, where the florally-aligned little creatures are praised and their achievements remembered. Like the Iomadi holiday, everyone takes this one off.

Firemoon

9th Day: Athirua Holiday. The extraordinarily beautiful Athirua receive plenty of attention year-round. Their racial holiday is a quiet day for them, where they can rest and attend to themselves while others hustle and bustle.

15th Day: The Appearance Day of Lord Orvial: The strange and fickle Orvial is celebrated on this day, in a celebration of flamboyant and exotic outfits, dances, and foods. It is also referred to as “the trickster’s day” sometimes. Lord Orvial appeared to the Adelians and taught them the value of the individual, and to love what is unique and odd.

Spiritmoon

12th Day: Spirit’s Celebration. This day is a worldwide celebration of the Adelian religion. All village, town and national Spirits, and other symbolic spirits, are offered gifts and praised by their communities, and Clerics too are revered and thanked on this day.

19th Day: Water Splashing Festival. The beginning of the hot months is celebrated by splashing water from small clay pots at people. A game is made of it in most towns and villages, where one splashes water at people one is very fond of.

28th Day: Setah Holiday. The tall and noble Setah are revered this day. Often referred to as being “racially partnered” with the Iomadi, due to many mythological couplings (and current couplings) between them, the Setah don’t tend to take this day off, as they are very active, but they are meant to rest and take it easy. Given the dedication and loyalty they tend to show, they well deserve it, even if they sometimes lose their self control.

Songmoon

13th Day: The Appearance Day of Lady Inunkuru. One of the goddesses of Eden with a darker side, Lady Inunkuru is nonetheless respected and revered. Her day is celebrated with sort of a reprise of the lover’s festival. It is said that Lady Inunkuru taught the Adelians about lust, control and ambition, and left them to understand or abuse those concepts as they wished to, because she would not condescend to or force them either way.

20th Day: Anpe Holiday. The small and energetic Anpe get a holiday all to themselves. In this holiday, it is permissible for them not to wear clothing. Most Anpe don’t quite enjoy wearing clothes. Anpe are uncommon enough that this doesn’t become a decency problem, particularly because most of them do take the day off.

29th Day: High Elf Holiday. Many Elves don’t hold a racial day, or they celebrate the Iomadi’s racial day along with the humans and half-elves. High Elves hold their own holiday however, which they do not allow other races to join in celebrating, and hold mostly in “secret.” On this day, High Elves gather in secret communes and praise the dead gods of their people, and try to keep alive what they believe to be their cultural heritage.

Greymoon

2nd Day: Inaw Holiday. The Inaw holiday is used to raise awareness of what necromancy has done to the Inaw, and how necromancers attempted to enslave them, and to celebrate their newfound freedom. Most Inaw don’t celebrate, as they don’t have much of a conception of themselves as a “race.” They also don’t have much of a conception of what a holiday even is. It is typically used as a propaganda day for governments wishing to raise awareness of why Necromancers should be eradicated.

26th Day: The Appearance Day of Lady Kaehma. Also celebrated as the “day of the dead.” Lady Kaehma, goddess of death, decay and disease, is revered also as the force which arbitrates whether such events occurs. Offerings are given to her so that she might deign to spare the people her dangerous offspring. It is said that Kaehma appeared to the first dying mortal, and she saved that person, so that the mortal could communicate to the rest of the people what happens when the body becomes ill or hurt.

Devilmoon

13th Day: Devil’s Night. A holiday celebrated on what is said to be the darkest night. It is a night of carefully arbitrated vice and pleasure where people can unwind from whatever moral code they followed (or be even more indulgent in their sin if no morals ever bound them). People are allowed one night to themselves to debauch, so long as they don’t inflict harm upon those unwilling to receive it, or kill anybody.

17th Day: Rhonnu Holiday. The royal-like Rhonnu are darkly glamorous beings and sensual beings, and their day of celebration is often used to unwind, and let their charismatic masks break for just a moment.

27th Day: The Appearance Day of Lord Koyki. The god of war and violence is revered on this day. All Adelians must worship even the so-called “evil gods” because one must be aware of one’s mortal failings and temptations to be able to counteract them. Worship is given to Koyki so as to know violence and war, rather than be ignorant of them. It is said that Koyki appeared on the battlefields and blessed the weapons of warriors so they would kill many enemies, and die glorious deaths, upon their own skill without having to worry about their arms failing them.

Darkmoon

4th Day: The Sky Celebration. On the Darkmoon, the sky spirits are revered so that they will not let their jealousy of the Sun get the better of them, and allow its rays to shine through to the Adelians. The sky celebration is a day of festivities and a night of stargazing.

10th Day: Dromidae Holiday. The effeminate, matriarchal Dromidae are celebrated on this day. Most Dromidae live off the planet in their floating cities in the Forlorn Void, but those that are on Adel are celebrated for their efforts towards a mutual peace and prosperity between the two civilizations. Dromidae are often shy about this day because they are not used to being specifically praised in such ways. Adelians taught them about culture, and they taught the Adelians about many things. To them, it was an even trade.

Coldmoon

5th Day: Snowfall Festival. The start of Winter is celebrated on the 5th of the Coldmoon. Children play in the snow, where able, while others merely ask the Spirits of Winter to help usher in a new year, as the old one begins to march to its end.

11th Day: The Appearance Day of Lord Trudgar. The Dwarf god is celebrated on this day by all Adelians, for preserving the dwarves through the Cataclysm and uniting the Adelians with this old, wise group at the beginning of the new world. It is said that during this day, Dwarves may fall into a trance, and be granted the ability to forge and craft masterworks the likes of which will not be seen again until this day next year.

12th Day: Dwarf Holiday. Right after the appearance day of Lord Trudgar, Dwarves hold their racial holiday. It is a celebration of dwarf achievement, and comes with much boasting at the expense and annoyance of others.

Duskmoon

6th Day: Human Celebration. The Adelians hold a day where they celebrate the rare, fragile race of humans who survived the Cataclysm. They solidify their commitment to preserve the tiny remnants of the human race so that they may all together, Iomadi, Human, Dwarf, Dromidae, Athirua, any and all races, work towards a shared future.

15th Day: Presents-Day. A gift-giving holiday. Each person gives a gift to someone they are fond of, typically something entertaining, useful or long-lasting.

30th Day: Dusk of Life Festival. An uproarious celebration throughout Adel occurs on the last day of the year. Adelians celebrate as hard as they can, as though there will not be a new year to celebrate in. They give their frantic energy to the Spirits so that they will deign to give them a new year to contain all the life and love that they exhibit on that day.

Other Holidays

Many villages have a few holidays here and there to celebrate particular local and folklore heroes and legends, held on certain days. There are too many and too varied to put on a standard calendar, so each village passes on these traditions among themselves. Travelers can be pleasantly surprised as they pass by a village on an ordinary day to find a strange, new celebration, they pass the discovery along and perhaps then it catches on elsewhere.

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