Presentation of the newborn spring children is highly enjoyed, and often the peasant community will present gifts to help the child along -- toys carved by hand during the long winter moons, neatly and carefully sewn clothing, pureed preserves and pickled goods for the child’s beginning moons, and items of blessing and luck.

And of course, there are the balefires, seen from afar blazing in the newly furrowed fields, surrounded by those making merry, where many a young lad and maid will find their mate and sneak off to the shadows to bind their heart’s desires.

Wavelong: Dedicated to Tynan, the Festival of Wavelong is celebrated in the Summer Moon upon the shores of the ocean. Here the festivity-goers gather to ask the god of the seas to bless them with the bounty of the ocean. Many ships are marked with a special symbol of Tynan on the prow, for protection of their vessel from danger when at sea. It is typical for fish to be freshly caught and grilled over the open celebration fires, along with mussels, crabs, and lobster. As a symbol of devotion to Tynan, fresh sea salt is passed around and each person eats a small pinch while revering the deity of the vast, broad waters.

Many hand-fastings take place during Wavelong, giving an even more joyous reason for celebration, and young girls wishing to find love before the next Wavelong Festival scour the beach to find a shell with a hole in it. This they hold in the ocean, making a wish for love to come to them, and then tie it with thread to wear about their neck.

Wavelong also prompts many of more adventurous spirit into competitions of watercraft skill and sailing races, swimming and diving, and fishing knowledge. And of course, the ever popular sand sculpture contest leaves the ocean-side strewn with creativity to be washed away by Tynan’s tide.

Aranblest: A centuries old honoring of the sun, source of life and guide to all our actions, Aranblest is a festival of Maya. Held during the first day of the Storm Moon, when the sun is constantly dancing between blue skies and storm clouds, Aranblest is a sight to witness. Priests and priestesses of Maya, adorned in gold, some even painted in gold dust, will gather, preferably in a large and open field where the heat of the day can be felt. At high noon the ceremony begins with much thanksgiving and prayers to Maya, after which begins a wild rhythm dance. Anyone can join in, feeling the tempo of Shavay drums and taking in the very essence of the sun as sweat sheens and courses over all present.

Fortunately there is respite for the less inclined, or those who need to rest themselves from the dance, and one can partake of a wide variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, juices, and cold spring water offered under shaded tents. Games beckon, too, especially the sun hunt, where anyone wishing pays a gold piece to hunt the field for the "sun", a round sphere of gold. Whoever finds this will take as prize the pool of gold paid by all participants. Games for children abound, along with crafts to esteem the brilliant ‘gift of Maya’, such as crystal mobiles to splay the sun’s light into thousands of rainbows, clay pottery fashioned with symbols and baked in the sun, woven reed balls, representing the sun, to play catch with, and drawings made with colored sand.

In a land such as the Old World, where light leaves us cold in the dark season of winter, celebrating Aranblest is a wonderful way to remember the blessings of summer-time.

Honoring: The Dry Moon, not only a time of intense heat but a time of summer’s swiftly ripening abundance, is the setting for the Honoring Festival. Participants fast until noon, invoking Ursula and recalling the memories of those who have passed into the realm of death. In these quiet hours, our ancestors and loved ones are honored for all they have given us, and for allowing us to be existent in the first place. In many smaller villages it is customary to open all doors and windows to allow any wandering spirits to pass through and hear the prayers spoken for them, in hopes of guiding them to Kaelum. Many people will also hold an item of someone dear to them that has traveled to Ursula’s domain, believing that such an action will allow their words to be carried to that person by the deity of death and life.

After noon passes, the fasting and time of solitude is finished, and the celebrants gather to rejoice in the sheer miracle that they are still alive to see and experience life. Incredible feasts are laid out, and drink, song, and dance are carried long into the night. Stories of bravery and courage, of times of great duress now past, are often shared around the balefires. And it is somewhat of a custom that each person, sometime during the night, must step off into the shadowed darkness to pray to Ursula for the gift of another year of life.

Harvest: Edana’s generosity shows as the bountiful harvest of crops yields food for the winter. Celebrated after most crops have been gathered and secured, the Harvest Festival takes place in the time of the Harvest Moon. The diligent work in the fields can be set aside and enjoyed as people gather to give thanks once again to Edana.

Music, spirits, dancing, and, of course, food – lots and lots of food – all flow abundantly during the Harvest Festival. A time for making merry and catching up with friends and neighbors, this celebration is fun to be a part of. There are competitions of strength and skill, even contests for wood splitting and best cuisines. The famous and passionate balefires could never be left out, and almost anyone is welcome to share in the spirit of revelry.

Harvest Festival is an excellent time to purchase canned and pickled goods, quilts and furs, candles, winter produce, and dry goods, as many peasants will sell such items during the celebrations. The Harvest Festival is one of the best for anyone less inclined to religion, as the air is one of wild jubilation more than somber devotedness.

Treefall: Another one of Maya’s festivals, Treefall is important because of the blessings that it offers. Together, celebrants select a maple tree, then tap the tree for a passage. The collected sap is then drunk in a toast to the bounties of the forest and to the graciousness of Maya on Treefall eve.

The morning of Treefall brings the felling of the chosen tree, and all day parts of the tree are crafted into baskets and fertility charms, items for protection and luck on the hunt, and as amulets for good health and healing. Since Treefall takes place in the Autumn Moon, it is a time to enjoy the last of the season’s warmth. Children jump into piles of leaves, and canned foodstuffs are offered along with the year’s final harvests. As a completion to the Treefall Festival, the trunk of the maple tree is split and given to each participant to burn in their own hearths – it is considered the best blessing for a safe and easy winter.

Banefall: In the dark hours of the Frost Moon, Banefall Festival is eerily exciting. Balefires lit with apple wood pierce the night, as people imagine demons, vampires, spirits, and all manner of dangerous creatures haunting the blackness. Celebrants gather to tell tales of the unusual and unexplained or to attempt a séance with powerful, otherworldly denizens. Now is the time to trace a protective circle around your home, or to leave out cider and wine as an appeasement to the creatures of shadow.

Quite popular during this festival are cherryhearts, a delectable pastry surrounding a large thumbprint of cherry filling. The deep red cherry center represents one’s heart, which is protected by the safe envelopment of flaky pastry. Although many enjoy such treats in happy amusement, strange and terrifying things do occur on Banefall, and it is not wise to go out alone. Pray to Ursula tonight should you wish protection from potential danger.  And should you seek some secret revealed, take a mirror that hasn’t seen light out to a darkened place, and pray to Morgan. The answer you seek shall be presented in the mirror, or so the tale is told.

Chestfind Eve: Primarily considered a festival for children, Chestfind Eve has drawn more than one adult into its charm. Chestfind day falls among the snow-filled passages of the Snow Moon, and children and adults alike spend the day in mock battles, snowball fights, and in creating snow sculptures. The festivities are punctuated by treats of all sorts – candies and chocolates, pastries and cream, and little dumplings filled with meats and vegetables. Sleigh rides are a common sight, filled to brimming with piles of children bundled against the cold, many singing songs or playing guessing games. As evening falls early the children gather together in front of big bonfires to warm up (with a mug of hot apple juice, too) to await the beginning of the treasure hunts.

This is truly a time to behold as children go racing about, searching for treasures. There are several different ways this is celebrated. In some places the children search throughout their house, in others they will look throughout the village, and in larger cities the hunts will often take place in a city park. These places are usually well lit with candles and lanterns once darkness falls, and the sight of it is sometimes surprisingly beautiful, when the snow glows in golden light.

Some hunts work on a clue basis, with little notes left guiding the children to the next clue, and some are merely a search and find. Certain hunts will use all the children present to figure out the hunt, perhaps even utilizing some sort of treasure map, with a gift for each child at the end, and some will simply send the children out to seek on their own. It is also common practice to have more than one kind of hunt at different times during the day, often presenting children of various age groups with hunts most suitable to their level of skill. The exciting thrills of such treasure hunts often lure adults to create their own, as well, although children are always given the final say on Chestfind Eve.

Maya’s Spring: This is the festival that breaks the monotony of the Dark Moon, when cold snows and harsh winds visit the lands. In an attempt to persuade Maya to bring back the springtime and warmth, celebrants of Maya’s Spring light every hearth, lamp, and candle in the house until the rooms are nearly unbearable with heat. Then all the doors and windows are flung open to release the warmth into the chill winter outside, hoping to coax the sunny days of spring back to the lands. People often go about dressed in fine-weather garments, pretending that the vernal days are here once again, and quite frequently over-zealous revelers can be seen frolicking and playing, ill-clad, in the snow.

Maya’s Spring pulls many out of doors as a sign to Winter that it will not be tolerated forever. Numerous celebrants purchase fresh flowers or forced bulbs to place in their windows, and the fare of the day is commonly bright, utilizing canned fruits and vegetables possessing rich and vibrant colors.

In some areas one can see snow dyeing. Purchased dyes are used to paint pictures of the springtime upon the white drifts, reminding passers-by that warmth will come again. Placing out dried seed heads and sunflowers for the birds and small creatures, even meal for the deer, is a very popular custom to tell Maya and her creatures that they are honored, and to let the goddess know that there are many of us waiting for the bounties of spring.

Ikita: Jeddan in origin, the Ikita Festival is now celebrated all across the Old and New World. Many people look forward to this Jeddan celebration, not only for its exotic flavour, but also because it occurs during the Melting Moon and heralds the very beginnings of spring.

Ikita honors the dragons, or Great Wyrms, which have always played an important role in Jeddan culture. The day is filled with dancing and Jeddan foods, most notably the ‘Dragon Cake’. Dragon Cakes come in a variety of forms, but traditionally they are large, with some cakes made to feed hundreds of revelers reaching to four or five paces long. Really a compilation of many layers of cake, heavily soaked in spirits and juxtaposed with creamy frostings, the Dragon Cake is one the most delectable sweets ever created. It is even quite possible to become drunk upon several pieces, but such is the point behind Ikita.

The flavour of the day is one of transcendence and relinquishment, and most celebrants imbibe of impressive quantities of spirits, believing that doing so will free the mind and allow one to understand, or come closer to, what the Great Wyrms are like, and to step for a moment into the broadened perspective that these powerful creatures possess.

Dragon depictions abound everywhere during Ikita – folded paper representations, paintings and sketches, carvings of wood and ice. Many celebrants will have their skins dyed with non-permanent tattoos of dragons, and there are a myriad of competitions and games one can partake in to challenge mind, agility, and intuition. The festival culminates in a large gathering around balefires to dance, tell stories, and explore the borders of imagination. Around the central fire, representing the intense power of the dragons, festival goers will gather. Here you can purchase a special sheet of paper that has been ‘cleansed’, upon which you write some wish that you desire, some negative trait that you want to rid yourself of, or something important to your heart. This parchment is then tossed into the flames where it is consumed, thereby releasing your desire to be answered by the magic of the Great Wyrms.

Noble weddings are another matter altogether. These are often grand affairs, especially as the couple to be wed may have been betrothed for any number of years prior to the special day. The guest lists tend to be large, as all the appropriate people need to be invited lest someone of import be left out. In many cases the guests will be housed within the home of the bride or the groom, depending upon the intricacies of the situation, though for the most part the wedding will be held at the man’s or his family’s estate. Noble weddings of such ilk are typically based upon Masallan tradition, meaning that the woman will bear the man’s surname, and so she will be expected to take her place in his home.

Planning can take many moons -- the food is usually catered, and bards, courtiers, and courtesans are hired for entertainment. A priest of Adrian is sought out to preside over the ceremony. After the joining of the couple, the celebration begins with a formal meal and a dancing ball. There are even cases where the festivities will continue for several days – this happens often when guests have travelled a long way to be a part of the celebration. More details of weddings will no doubt be covered in future treatises of Illumination, as the subject is extraordinarily broad in range and design.

Handfastings: Handfastings are quite popular in the Old and New World, and are encountered most frequently among the common class. Wildly celebrated by the guests with plentiful food, spirits, and music, a handfasting joins the couple for a year and a day. The couple pledges in front of those gathered to remain committed and to try and solve any possible misunderstandings throughout the course of their handfasting. They are then bound hand to hand to represent their devotion and their joining.

This arrangement seems to work well for many, as they can renew the vow the following year, even hosting a real wedding if the match is suited; or they can simply let the binding fade, having experienced enough of one another to know that more will not work out. Nonetheless, handfastings offer a great diversion for the common class from the rigors of everyday life.

Birthings: Caradorians revere life, and so the birth of a newborn baby is a time of great jubilation. Childbirth is presided over by a midwife and a priestess of Edana, and the child is blessed upon entering into this grand and exciting new world. Usually the celebration and festivities will be withheld until the baby and mother have had a chance to rest and unite -- normally after a passage’s time. During these seven days, friends and family of the rejoicing couple will visit and prepare meals to allow the mother and father (and other children) to get acquainted with the newest member. Then the day of presentation arrives, and guests, or entire villages, will come throughout the day to feast and give blessings to the child. The babe will be formally named in front of those gathered, so that all may be witness to the honor. It is also worth mentioning that in some places parents will plant a tree upon a child’s birth. A seed is planted when the couple is sure they have conceived, and the seedling is nurtured during the woman’s pregnancy. When the child is born the tree is set into the earth as an offering of thanks to Maya, and it is ever after carefully attended until it grows to maturity.

Coming of Age: A special day in the life of every young man or woman, the coming of age celebrates a child’s entrance into the rights and responsibilities of adulthood. The exact age differs from region to region – some places need their young to be ready for help in the community at an early age, such as in many peasanting communities, and other circles of life require more experience before an adolescent can be integrated into mature society, as is the case in with many of noble or high birth.

Regardless of the age, the coming of age day is heralded with much ado. Friends, families, and even acquaintances are invited to meet the newest member of the adult world, and a very large feast accompanies the occasion. In many cultures there are rites of passage marking bravery and strength, beauty and cunning, and though we do not put as much stock in such dangerous or grueling tests, many children will be given their coming of age after they have accomplished some meritable feat – a young man having taken down his first stag, perhaps, or a young woman who has compiled a large repertoire of domestic skills.

Throughout the Old and New World, the adolescent in light will perform some sort of representation of their passing into the next phase of life. In many small towns and villages, all the guests will gather in pairs, linking hands in an arch, and the child will pass under everyone until they reach the other side. In higher circles, the young person will pass through some sort of contrived opening – perhaps a silver hoop, or a woven wreath of fragrant branches. They are applauded on the other side and asked to perform several activities symbolizing that they are now an adult. Often such tasks will include pouring and tasting the first spirits of the celebration – this is usually accompanied by a toast. Begun by the young person it is then taken up by others, and is spoken in honor of the young person’s family and friends, and in honor of the young person themself. Other requirements might be carving and serving the first of the meat, impressing the company with a honed talent – a song or story, or a swordsmanship demonstration.  In most societies, the coming of age celebration is one to look forward to.

Death:  It is a true fact of life that Ursula must come to claim each of us.  Life is prized in Carador- most often for the joy and fervor with which it is experienced.  So it should be expected that the loss of a friend or loved one is noticed very deeply, and celebrated in its own way as well.  

The body, should it be available to the aggrieving, is dealt with in a variety of ways.  The honoring of the physical form is expressed differently according to family or personal custom, although in certain villages and towns, a common ceremony is practiced by all.  Several of the better known ways are to send the body out to sea, to return it to the great deep fathoms of the unknown waters.  Many burn the body to ash, to represent a release of the spirit from the material.  Others offer the body to the animals or bury the individual, returning the soul to the earth, from whence Maya formed us all.  

In all theses rituals it should be noted that Caradorians are quite spiritual in matters of the dead.  Departed ones are believed to walk the realm of Kaelum and perhaps even the other realms, to linger nearby if not freed properly from this world, or to become one with all the mysteries of life that we living people cannot understand.  Letting go of someone special is a devastating task, but those who mourn such losses also remember to rejoice in the blessing that they are still alive.  Many feel that they carry a spark of the deceased person with them so long as they pay honor to the memories of the one they loved.

In some places great feasts and celebrations occur, with much noise and merry making in an attempt to spur the newly released spirit to a place of  joy and happiness.  The ways in which we say 'goodbye' or 'until we meet again', are as broad as the colors of the rainbow. 

Knightings: Not as widespread as in the distant past, knighthoods are a special occasion.  Because the Queen has recently re-introduced the idea of a 'knight' into the scheme of politics and societal structure, there have been many opportunities to attend such a marvelous and interesting ceremony.   

In this enlightened age, men and women are chosen and tested for the right to be sworn as a knight.  The knighting ceremony itself is very formal, and many guests are usually invited to attend.  The actual knighting hushes the entire chamber, with ears eager to absorb words of praise and honor.  The newly dubbed knight then steps forward to address the hall, proclaiming loyalty and offering the strength of his or her blade.  Toasts are popular and well-spoken, often overwhelming the conversation during the great feast.  But afterward, the tables are cleared away, and music and dancing ensue.  Quite naturally there are a profusion of people wishing to challenge the knight in mock battle or any number of contests or games, and soon the hall is filled with people testing the skills of one another, as well as the talents of the knight.  

Knightings are filled with energy and glowing excitement, and provide an excellent place to embellish one's own stories of heroics.  Not only that, but they are a wonderful way to engage the interests of those in more powerful positions, and to form alliances with visiting persons of high esteem.  Many a noble lord or lady will mix with someone of a lesser caste at a knighting, for the boundaries are thin, and the generosity of the event is contagious.

Lifedays:  Lifeday is a word for the day that you were born, the day that you were given life.  It is a day to show your gratitude for the miracle of being in the world, and most people will throw a big party to express such feelings of good fortune.  Not only will there be all the makings of a regular celebration, but the host will present gifts to all of his or her friends.  Bestowing gifts to others celebrates one's bounty and is believed to bring more to you in the next year.  Giving gifts to those you love and surround yourself with also symbolizes your thankfulness for their influence in your life, and serves as a reminder that such blessings as good friendship and love are yours because you were granted breath and a beating heart.

Anyone celebrating the joy of being part of such a magical world will take time to themselves on their Lifeday to sit in a quiet place of beauty.  This is a personal time for reflection of all that has occurred in one's life, and a moment for making prayers of thanks as well as asking for special desires. 

Not all Caradorians celebrate their Lifeday on the day that they were born - many celebrate sometime during the year, on a day when they feel particularly thankful for the glory of their existence.  In fact, some people celebrate a Lifeday whenever they wish, the principal motive being to pay tribute to the beauty of being alive.

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