Feast Days and Celebrations(coming soon)

Feast Days and Celebrations:



Nost-na-Lothion (Birth of Flowers)
Type: Spring Festival
Popular among: elves and the people of Gondor
How is it typically celebrated?: Another tradition known in ancient Gondolin and changed slightly as time passed. Now, people gather outside during daytime, in gardens and on fields and clearings. Trees are decorated with colorful ribbons, males and females alike wear the first flowers and leafs in their hair. Sweets are being hidden by adults and have to be searched by children. Music is played and meals are shared. Many markets are being held.

-> Flower and color festivals celebrating spring in the streets, for a day without any class boundaries, are popular in Rhûn. In Harad rain and river-flood festivals are celebrated in spring, welcoming the new, fertile soil. In Khand loud drums and music, as well as horrifying masks, dance and bonfires are used to chase the winter away in spring.



Tarnin Austa (Gates of Summer)
Type: Summer Solstice Celebration
Popular among: elves and the people of Gondor
How is it typically celebrated?: Tarnin Austa is celebrated on the first day of summer. It begins with a solemn ceremony at midnight. No-one is allowed to speak from midnight until the rising of the sun. Traditionally the silence would be broken by joined song. Tarning Austa, however, is also the day on which Gondolin was attacked by Morgoth’s armies, the beginning of the Fall of Gondolin. Many died that day. Only parts of its tradition are remembered and have been adopted by some elves and men. What has been kept is a night of remembrance and quiet company, spent with close friends and family. A night in which all houses, gardens and streets are filled with small lamps, tiny lights and colorful lanterns.

-> Summer solstice or midsummer celebrations themselves are popular among Hobbits, the people of Rohan and Khand. They are usually celebrated with bonfires, food and drink, dance and music.



Harvest Celebrations
These are held throughout Middle Earth, following the common theme of celebrating a bountyful harvest, hard work, friendship, love and giving thanks to people, creatures, the land, earthly contributers and higher powers alike. Local traditions vary, but they usually include music and dance, food and markets, all featuring prominently the crops of the season of that region in question.



New Year's and Midwinter Celebrations
All across Middle Earth celebrations of this kind are popular. They differ in duration and local traditions, but what most of them have in common are feasting, games, the telling of stories and gift-giving.




Naming-Day, Birthday and Coming-of-age Celebrations

Khand: Birthdays are not celebrated in Khand. The coming of age of young men, however, is. During clan meetings young men of the right age, provided that they are the children of free clan members, present themselves in front of the current general leader and his wife. They swear loyalty and promise bravery. In turn they receive a bracelet marking them as adults and full members of their people. Those bracelets are never taken off willingly. They will also receive a kiss from the leader’s wife. An enthusiastic reaction is expected and proves their devotion and maturity.

Rhûn: The coming of age of a young woman and the births of her children are celebrated, making celebrations of a birthday an events that celebrate her, rather than the child. The house is decorated with flowers, she is given small gifts and special meals are prepared for her. This will be repeated when her first child turns one year, during which event it is tried to predict the child’s future by surrounding it with various items. The first item the child reaches for is said to reveal what their life will be governed by in the future. There is no yearly anniversary celebration.

Harad: In Harad instead of the anniversary of the day of birth, the day of name-giving, as well as its anniversary are celebrated. Those who share a name will traditionally have a joined celebration. Names are not given to children by parents, but suggested by circumstances and recognized. Therefore a shared name generally also means that a meaningful experience is shared.

Gondor: ???

Rohan: ???

The Shire: Hobbit birthdays are an intricate affair of giving and receiving gifts. They are celebrated each year, but especially so whenever a round number of years is reached. Parents do not give gifts to their children, but heads of a clan or family do. So do other close relatives, the parents of adopted children and neighbors, in private, so as to avoid potentially embarrassing the gift giver. After their third year the birthday child (byrding) is expected to give gifts that they have created, collected or grown themselves to their parents. The value and number of people included in this latter part of the tradition grows with age and social and financial status. The owner of a house is expected to give gifts to everyone who lives or works in that house, for example. The actual celebration takes place on the evening of the birthday and usually includes food and drink, music and dancing. Additionally each guest is given a gift by the byrding.

Dwarves: ???

Elven Traditions: Elves tend to not celebrate birthday: the anniversary of the day of birth, but the anniversary of the day of conception: begetting day.



Weddings

Khand: Young men and women meet during clan meetings and the shared celebrations accompanying them, men dress to impress and compete in demonstrations of fighting prowess, women cheer them on with songs and dance and eventually choose, the man joins their clan. At the next meeting they may choose another. There are cases known in which a woman picked another woman, but whether for love or friendship or practicality is unknown.

Rhûn: Marriages are arranged by older family members, either between families that already know each other or on marriage markets held for that very occasion, to which older family members may bring the one they wish to marry off (most often the female), show off their beauty and fortune and praise their candidate and family in the highest terms to attract the perfect match. The match is made afterwards, after several private meetings between the families and after specific conditions have been negotiated. Once an agreement has been reached, elaborate rituals amidst costly celebrations, that even among peasant families can last several days, take place. The couples hands are joined and tied with a ribbon, while he leads her and she leads him once around their new home (often the multi-generational home of the man), then they light the hearth fire together, accompanied by music and the encouragement of their guests. This may be repeated for as many women as a man can provide for without neglecting one of them.

Harad: While noble families may hold large celebrations to mark the occasion, there is, in general, no marriage ceremony or celebration. A man and woman are considered married as soon as she enters the home, either house or tent, that he has prepared for them, with the agreed upon goods that she adds to their household. While the choice of partners is usually greatly influenced by other family members, marriages out of love happen from time to time and the completion of a new home warrants many drinks and food for all involved helpers.

Gondor: Gondorian marriages tend to be quite formal and the ceremonies and parts involved differ little, no matter the social and financial standing of the couple. Who will be invited is decided by who is there to witness the father of the woman to be married give the hand of his daughter and to her intended husband by laying it into his and closing his around it. He then blesses them. Emulating some elven traditions, though more rigorously followed, gifts are exchanged between the couple and their parents. The man’s mother gives a gift to the woman and the woman’s father one to the man. Rings are exchanged between man and woman, once when their hands are joined in silver and once when the final ceremony takes place in gold. Those rituals are followed by feasting, involving music and presentations of poetry, as well as performances by acrobats, dancers, skilled figthers or horsemen, and small games for children. The duration and extent of those festivities highly depends on what the couple and their families can afford, but some celebration is required. Guests will bring gifts and well wishes, but have to be offered food and drink in turn.

Rohan: Rohirric weddings are a time of gifts, most of them given to the woman to provide for her and any potential children should anything happen to her husband or she decide to leave him if he stays away for too long or mistreats her. Her family has to provide her with a dowry and after the wedding night her husband is expected to give her another gift of jewelry or coin. The man also has to make a gift to her family, thus proving that he will be able to provide for her. In turn her family will give a new sword and horse to him during the marriage ceremony proper, while she is given the keys to their new home and the ancestral blade of his family. Afterwards they eat, drink and make merry. The couple will share each other’s company and a drink of mead every day for a week to follow. While marriages are very much business transactions, regulated by strict rules and the outcome of sometimes heated negotiations, especially between her father and the man who wishes to marry her and has to seek out said father in company of some friends to ask his permission to do so, they are not devoid of joy or even love.

The Shire: ???

Dwarves: ???

Elven Traditions: ???



Funerals

Harad: The body of the deceased is carefully prepared and buried in costly tombs or the desert sand. The dead are remembered at small, carefully maintained private altars, decorated with flowers and incense, sometimes jewelry and other small precious objects that would have been given as gifts to the deceased if they yet lived or that belonged to them or that symbolize what they loved most.

Khand: The body of the deceased is layed out in a high place for birds to pick the bones and carry all earthly remains into the sky.

Rhûn: The body of the deceased is adorned with flowers and painted masks, burned with incense and herbs in colorful flames. A fruit tree will be planted and the remaining ashes buried at its roots. Depending on social and financial standing this tree will be bigger or smaller, richly adorned or barely at all.

Gondor: The body of the deceased is dressed and prepared carefully, placed in a boat and set afloat, often the boat is sent out onto the water accompanied by floating candles, and a burning arrow is then shot to set the boat on fire. Memorial stone statues of nobles and rulers will be kept in family crypts.

Rohan: The body of the deceased is entombed in ancestral barrows, accompanied by mourning songs and drinks raised in last salutes.

Dwarves: The body of the deceased is entombed in stone sarcophagi in burial chambers.

The Shire: ???

Different elven traditions: ???