Solstice Jumpfest

In the southern climes of the world, far from the World Spine where camels tread sand and frost, the southern camel herding nomads hold a festival lasting three days and the two nights in between, held at places, usually crop valleys, where different communities converge, marked with four tall lantern posts.   At dawn of the day before their summer solstice, they slaughter one camel from each community, cut off its front hump, and melt it to be the fat in which they will fry squash slices in potato flour. For the rest of the day, the community celebrates the coming solstice with corn beer, fried squash, fermented camel milk, and the meat of the slaughtered camels. Starting at dusk of the first night, they set up a large platform for religious plays, dances, and poetry contests to be held under the tall lantern posts; most of the people will take intermittent naps during the first day to stay awake as long as possible overnight. Starting at dawn, the summer solstice itself is the day of fasting and prayer, with only water being permitted to drink. At dusk of the second night, the rear hump from the previously slaughtered camels will be cooked down to fry more food, and another night of dancing, singing, and plays and poetry contests. On the third day, the large platform will be taken down, the bonfire will be allowed to burn out, and the next year's supply of corn beer and potato flour will be sequestered underground. The communities will punctuate the third day with a midday song of prayer, and a collective outside dinner will be held before dusk.   The structure of the festival itself is meant to mirror the twin humps on the backs of their camels, with the two nights being the climaxes of the festivities, and the final day representing the rear of the camel, when the different converging their communities begin to pull up stakes and continue grazing their herds elsewhere, not to see each other again until the next convergence. Even the locations are symbolic, often holding these festivals between mountains in fertile valleys, and the name of the festival, the Solstice Jumpfest, is meant to draw a comparison between the "jump" made by the Solstice sun and the two mountains, and the connection made between the two or more communities celebrating together during the brief time they see each other.