Seasonal Stuff

From: Michael Raaterova <cabal_at_algonet.se>
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 1995 19:46:53 +0200


Salvete!

Here may be something of interest. This is the first bit of my ritual calendar, and appropriately enough it's Sea Season.

[Some bits related to the calendar were posted before i got too caught up in the real world. December/January i think. Drop me a line if you want them, so i can send them to you.]

Of course it's not finalised or canonical. But at least it's something to begin with.

I'm gonna need help to finalize this, so send lots of comments and additions. Ceremonial details, other important Days, myths to incorporate with the Days or whatever you feel is needed.

The calendar does not [yet] incorporate influences from outside the storm pantheon. I'd love to see your recommendations on the subject tho.

If you have better names for the days, well, don't just sit there - tell me!

ORLANTHI RITUAL CALENDAR/List of Days

The dates for the following days aren't fixed. The runic dates are only for reference to holy days in the Gloranthan Calendar and other fixed calendars for those who use them. I feel the runic calendar to be far too godlearnerish and artificial, so i wouldn't use it myself. Some (most) of the dates are my own, according to what I feel is appropriate for the deity/ritual phenomenon. I have also made extensive use of John Hughes Far Point Calendar. If you don't have it, there's no excuse not to get it - it's really good.

Being a season of hard work and joyful holidays. Sex and sexual symbolism is in the air. It's filled with the joy and excitement of the new year. There's also a lot of bloody [blood is after all the water of life] sacrifices.

FLOWERDAY, FIRSTDAY (Voria; disorder freeze)

This is the first day of the year, and is the day of beginnings. Voria's holy days are the first day of every season - the Newday - for she is the goddess of beginnings, as well as innocence.

It is the time for cleaning out the old and moldy. Every window and door in the house is opened so that the winds can blow the old year out.

The first wild animal seen this day must be held in respect the rest of the year and be given sacrifices every Newday. Divinations of all sorts should be made this day as the world, recently forged anew, has yet to be shrouded in the
clouds of Time. The omens of this day shapes much of the rest of the year. Attention is given to the behaviour of animals, patterns of cast runesticks etc.

It is also the time of the Great Blossom Run, when the Voriae dance barefoot in imitation of Voria's dance of celebration when Ernalda stepped out of her wintery bed.

The Spring Queen is chosen and celebrated, as well as the Bad One, who is beheaded and hung upside down on the Sacrificial Tree until Sacred Time, letting his blood nourish the roots of the tree.

The Bad One [better name, anyone?] will hopefully draw to itself all Bad Things that would have happened to the clan during the year, leaving it unscathed. Nominees for the Bad One are Chaotics [lunars ;)], Criminals, Enemies, Foreigners, Strangers, Hostages from other tribes or Hostages from another clan.

LOVERS' DAY (Uleria; disorder god).

The Goddess of Love blesses all children born on this day, and couples married this day are sure to be happy. Blessings and fertility charms are cast on animals and people alike. Oaths of Peace should be proclaimed this day. No one may bear arms.

On this day no one can be charged with adultery because the passion spirits of the anarchistic goddess of love are most likely to be responsible for the act. It is also easier for these spirits to possess people on this day (and even easier during the night).

It is a day for the giving of gifts and tokens of friendship and love. It is, in a way, Valentine Day. Youths traditionally exchange lovetokens to someone they fancy on this day.

The Ulerian Festival starts in the evening.

PLOUGH DAY (Barntar; harmony clay).

This day is not fixed at all, but depends on the weather. It is the day of the first ploughing.

The day that precedes Plough Day is the Boundary Day, when the clan's boundaries are walked and reaffirmed with the neighboring clans, in a highly formalistic manner, where ancient rights and claims to the land are recounted.

Plough Day is an honor to Barntar, Ernalda and Orlanth. Any objects found when ploughing are held to be sacred to Barntar but belongs to the farmer who found it. There is a myth about Barntar and Asrelia concerning the finding of buried treasures and to whom it belongs. It's propably a mythified law suit.

BIRTH DAY (Ernalda; fertility clay).

This day is sacred to Ernalda Childbearer. Any birth occurring this day is held to be a very good auspice.

Passage rites usually take place this day - specially End of Childhood ceremonies. Introductory rites for strangers are performed.

This is also the day of midwifery.

RAIN DAY (Orlanth & Heler; movement wind).

This day is sacred to the lifegiving Rain of Orlanth and Heler. Male Air and female Earth and fertilizing rain makes a selfevident symbolism of divine intercourse. It is aslo the the day of Orlanth Genitor

The elder men with virilty problems perform a ceremony on the highest available spot, where the rain can restore their virility.

The women wanting to be mothers propably gather in a secluded spot where they dance skyclad so that the fertilizing rain can better their odds during the upcoming Pairing Feast.

In the evening there's a celebration where the first fruits of the earth are shared, eaten and sacrificed. There is also a strange ceremony where young men, having passed from boyhood to manhood the preceding Birth Day, dances within a
circle of maidens, likewise recently passed into womanhood, and slaps them with the hide of a bull's tail, except one of the boys who pinches the girls instead. He is then ceremoniously thrown into a river or a pool of water by the girls.

The rainwater collected on this day is used to make love potions and virility/ fertility philtres.
- -------

In the passage between Sea and Fire Season the big, week-long Pairing Feast is celebrated. It will get separate treatment and will not be included in II. Fire Season.

I am not sure when the next part will be posted as I have to translate my [rough] drafts into english, and make them intelligible.

Valete!

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