Of course the orlanthi have ceremonies and rituals during the summer, but i don't see them as major festivals. The Elmal Honey ceremonies take place sometime during summer, as Mahome's Ash Day and the SwordSpearShield Dance.
The major marriage festivities IMG take place during the (beltane) Sacred Tree festival, where is celebrated the hieros gamos of Orlanth and Ernalda/Barntar and Mahome under the auspices of that most exalted goddess, Uleria.
Regarding the celticness of the calendar: i use the celtic names to mark the time of year, not to signify what rituals and ceremonies take place.
>A midwinter festival, at least one that's yule-fire-based, would in fact
>probably be less communal, but the Yule Fire festivities described, IIRC, by
>Frazer in the _Golden Bough_ make an interesting model and had a communal
>element. IIRC, the individual hearth fires of the community were allowed to
>go out, and then were relit with torches brought from a central bon fire.
> This makes, IMO, an excellent festival to celebrate both Mahome and the
>dutiful actions of either Elmal as the loyal thane, perhaps as the guardian
>of the hearth?, or Yelmalio as the Winter Sun, who preserved light during the
>Darkness.
IMG there's a string of related rituals during winter, beginning with the Mourning of Ernalda during the (samain) Smallfire Festival and ending with Victory Day during the Orlanth HHD in the (imbolc) Thunder Festival.
IMG midwinter is the HHD or a HD of most Darkness deities, including Ty Kora Tek, Babs and Maran Gor and Asrelia. To the orlanthi it signifies the nadir of Ernalda's descent into hell (a la the Inanna cycle).
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #68
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