Festivals of Insel der Freiheit
Festivals on Insel der Freiheit come in three varieties. Secular, Balai and Qualeo. While the dates of these holidays occur in the local calendar they have been translated into the WK calendar for ease of use by Guild members.
Secular Holidays
Tax Day
11th of Vintage. This day is when the Princes deliver the taxes to the king. This day is mostly symbolic with small parcels of Gold being used to symbolise the taxes being paid, while the actual good and money are sorted out by a complex bureaucracy throughout the year. This is a night of feasting with food provided to the people by the Princes. The quality of this festival day will often cause more nomadic families to move to other principalities is they are unhappy with the offerings.
Kings Birthday
Currently not celebrated until the birth of the new king. This is suspected that it will be in late Seedtime. Normally a day of rest for all including slaves.
Midsummer Night
A day of celebration with family and friends. Most towns have large street celebrations with fireworks and bonfires. The Princes traditionally hold lavish balls for the local nobility and after the dinners the food is taken into the streets for all to enjoy. The celebrations usually last until the sun rises on the next day and that day is a day of rest.
Landing Day
While no one can recall the exact date of the first shipwreck this is a day for families to come together and celebrate the day. This celebration ocours on the 5th of Breeze.
The Choosing
On this day (12th of Frost) all children who turned nine years old in the previous year report to the town forum to be chosen by craft-masters and taken on as apprentices. While most children find an apprenticeship those who do not may try again the next year. A child of over twelve years old without an apprenticeship will have to earn a living doing whatever they can find and many become beggars or slaves. The day itself is marked by a day off for all apprentices and the Masters spend the morning in discussions over their selections. The discussions often take place over an ale or two and most are in the mod for celebration by the time of the choosing at Midday. The Guilds pay for large feasts for all apprentices, new and old, as well as the unsuccessful and the celebrations are often an excuse for the whole town to take the day off and the parties last well into the night.
Balai Holidays
Balai Festivals are always joyful occasions. Typically on a festival day, lay people will go the the local temple or monastery and offer food to the monks and listen to a Kinsen talk. In the afternoon, they distribute food to the poor to make merit, and in the evening perhaps join in a ceremony of circumambulation of the town/village three times as a sign of respect to the ancestors, the living and yet to be born. The day will conclude with evening chanting of the Balai's teachings and meditation.
Balai New Year
Occours over three days from Samhain. The celebration involves three days of prayer and fasting with the foods that would be consumed being given to the local temples. On the third day a huge feast is produced from the combined foods. These feasts are often preceded with sporting ventures, where a large tree near the town will have a bell attached to a monkey tail placed near the top. The local men race to climb the and recover the bell, returning it to the steps of the temple. The man who returns the bell is considered lucky for the year and leads the circumambulation of the town. This circumambulation is often accompanied by the whole town and firecrackers are released in celebration and to keep away the dark forces for the coming year.
- Only unmarried men without concubines may enter, no weapons and only a loincloth, an oiled body and sticky gum stuff on your hands and feet ( which is also good for tearing off eyebrows ). There are two ways to play, one is the serious way to win with a team having a climber and four or five blockers. The other is to beat on people, especially people who pissed you off during the year, which is how most people play. Think several thousand young men having a full on brawl with lots of falls, dislocations, ruptured this and that and broken limbs, then the guy with the bell needs to fight his way back down, through the mob and back to the city, anyone who can take the bell and get it into the temple in the city wins. Afterwards there is a huge feast and lots of mating with local women...Kirgoth.
Day of the Balai
This is the birthday of the first prophet of Balai and takes place on the 14th of Ice. The only thing that differentiates this holiday is the lighting of candles within the temples and shrines in respect to the First Prophet.
Abhidhamma Day
People clean their houses and wash their clothes and enjoy sprinkling perfumed water on the monks, novices and other people for at least two or three days. They gather around the riverbank, carrying fishes in jars to put into the water, for Harvest is so hot in Insel der Freiheit that the ponds dry out and the fish would die if not rescued. People go to the beach or river bank with jars or buckets of water and splash each other. When everyone is happily wet they are usually entertained by boat races on the river.
Loy Krathong
(Festival of Floating Bowls)
In the middle of the Thaw, when the rivers and canals are full of water, the Loy Krathong Festival takes place in all parts of Insel der Freiheit on the full moon. People bring bowls made of leaves (which contain flowers) candles and incense sticks, and float them in the water. As they go, all bad luck is suppose to disappear.
The Ploughing Festival
In Seedtime, when the moon is half-full, two white oxen pull a gold painted plough, followed by four girls dressed in white who scatter rice seeds from gold and silver baskets. This is to encourage good harvest.
The Elephant Festival
The First Prophet used the example of a wild elephant which, when it is caught, is harnessed to a tame one to train. In the same way, he said, a person new to Balai should have a special friendship of an older Kinsen. To mark this saying, Thais hold an elephant festival on the third Reapsday in Meadow.
Qualeo Holidays
The followers of Qualeo are known to have a number of important dates through the year however they are very private affairs and may who have tried to witness these rituals and observances have not returned to describe them in detail.
The following are dates that are known to be important, for conveneance they have been detailed with their WK names and an outline of what philosophers believe is the significance of the day.
- Beltane - No-one is sure what the holiday celebrates but rituals involving adherents leaping through large bonfires have been reported. Those flying over the isles on this night report thousands of bonfires in the highlands.
- Midsummer - Known to be a powerful day.
- Lugnasad - No details exist
- Autumnal Equinox - No details exist
- Samhain - Associated with the weakening of the veil between the worlds. A known Faerie Day.
- Yule (Winter Solstice) - Associated with the spirits of the recently departed.
- Candlemansa - No details exist
- Ostern(Spring Equinox) - Associated with the healing and growth of spirits.
