Bellybloom

Bellybloom began in the early days of the Delmar kingdom, when the settlement of Samuel was still young. Not far from the town lay a stretch of rolling hills covered each year with blossoms of every color. The locals came to call them the Rainbow Petal Hills.   One year, after a particularly hard season, Major Samuel III discovered these hills while traveling home. Wanting to reward his people for their toil, he devised a celebration. While the workers were still out in the fields, he ordered those who remained in town to prepare meals, pack baskets, and ready casks of ale and wine.   When the laborers returned at day’s end, the king led them all to the Rainbow Petal Hills. There, they spread their feasts across the flowered slopes. The colors of the blossoms mingled with the flavors of the harvest, and the drinks seemed to taste sweeter beneath the open sky. The people laughed, ate, and rested together, their spirits renewed.   The joy of that day was so great that the people swore to repeat it each year after the first harvest. In time, the custom spread beyond Samuel, and soon all of Delmar embraced the tradition of Bellybloom.

Preparations

  Unlike the early days, Bellybloom now takes far more than a single day to arrange. Entire towns prepare weeks in advance:   Drink Wineries and breweries set aside special casks throughout the year. Most communities provide two styles:   Fine Brews wines and ales carefully aged for years, often infused with fruit from the earliest harvests. These serve as a toast to prosperity and tradition.   Festival Brews quickly made ales or whiskeys flavored with fruit and spice, brewed from the very first harvest of the season, meant to be enjoyed fresh.   Food A full week after the first harvest, preparations begin. The holiday was moved forward in time to allow enough days for cooking. To keep the feast running from sunrise to nightfall, towns organize cooking rotations, ensuring every family has time to both cook and enjoy the celebration.   Entertainment Local leaders (often the mayor) handle schedules for musicians, storytellers, games, and artists. This includes ensuring food service continues smoothly and assigning the watch to help keep the festivities safe and orderly.  

Traditions of the Day

  At dawn, after families share a hearty breakfast at home, everyone gathers in the flower fields. Families carry blankets, baskets of food, and bottles of drink, finding a spot to claim while leaving the heart of the flower meadow clear for beauty and play.   Notable Traditions include:   Opening Blessing A host or master of ceremonies welcomes the crowd, thanking all for their hard work and offering prayers to the Eight Deities for a year of abundance and joy.   The Great Spread Long tables are laid out with shared dishes, while towering kegs and casks of ale and wine some as large as a tree stand ready for pouring.   Family Games Children enjoy rolling sleds down grassy hills, simple ball games, and playful contests like flower-crown races, and Rainbow Meal Slam down.   Arts & Performance Painters capture portraits of families among the blossoms, singers and musicians fill the fields with music, and dancers perform until twilight.   The day is less about structure and more about endless joy. Food, music, laughter, and drink flow in equal measure. By evening, lanterns are lit among the flowers, and the party continues deep into the night.  

Rainbow Meal Slam Down

  One of the most popular (and messiest) competitions of Bellybloom is the Rainbow Meal Slam Down. Contestants are given seven dishes, each inspired by a color of the rainbow, and must finish them all as quickly as possible.   Each color carries a distinct flavor profile:  

• Red – Spicy
• Orange – Tangy
• Yellow – Sweet
• Green – Smoky
• Blue – Creamy
• Indigo – Bitter
• Violet – Savory

  The dishes are always prepared in advance, but their exact recipes vary from cook to cook. Some chefs present balanced, delicious plates, while others push the flavors to extremes spicier, sweeter, smokier, or more bitter than anyone expected all in good fun for the contest.   Every contestant receives the same seven courses, and the winner is the one who clears their “rainbow” first. After the competition, the tables are opened to the crowd so that anyone may sample the colorful feast and “taste the rainbow” for themselves.

Festival Whiskeys

  No Bellybloom feast is complete without its signature drinks. While many ales and wines are prepared for the holiday, two whiskies are considered essential:  

Spice Apple Whiskey

  A robust whiskey infused with apples and cinnamon from the past year’s harvest. It carries a warm burn on the tongue and throat, balanced by a rich, lingering sweetness. Best enjoyed during the golden hours of the day.  

“Ohh, you should definitely try this one. The scenery, the sweetness, the little burn it’s just perfect with an afternoon tea, dinner, or supper. Raise a glass to the sunset, bottoms up, my friend.”

 

Hello Sweety Whiskey

  A softer, fruit-forward whiskey blended with grapes and strawberries, giving it a unique and luscious flavor. Known as the “couple’s drink” of Bellybloom, it is often shared between lovers who prefer a sweeter sip to match a sweeter day.  

“Dear, such a lovely drink, and such a lovely sight here with you. What more could I even ask for?”

The Rainbow Petal Hills are a natural wonder of the Del l Mar Kingdom, and the traditional home of the Bellybloom festival even thought it all over the kingdom. Contrary to their name, the “hills” form a ring of five great slopes that meet together, creating a sheltered valley between them.   Within this valley lies a sprawling bed of wildflowers, where countless native species have taken root. The blooms carpet the land in waves of vibrant color reds, yellows, blues, purples, and oranges so rich and varied that visitors often describe it as standing before a living sea of color.   The flowers here are not uniform; some grow wild from seed, others creep low as mosses, while still others rise as flowering bushes. Somehow, the valley seems to preserve and nurture the full variety of local flora, as though the land itself wished to keep them safe within its embrace.   To stand in the Rainbow Petal Hills is to be overcome with awe, for the valley is as breathtaking in its quiet beauty as it is in its riot of color.   The Bellybloom festival is still hosted here by the city of Samuel but other city and town have found other beautiful landscapes to have the celebration at.