Home Harvest

Home Harvest

The Dead Season brings the end to the Leiprod homes of Lesyana and the surrounding areas. Denizens huddle by family fires with smoke escaping the central flume of the grayed husk of what were once living homes.

These seasons are hard, cold, takjing lives every year. During the Silent season, snow coats the home husks, creating igloos and warm havens. The leiprod homes become small islands of life in [quiet] mirth as the silence ponders the new year.

When the snow melts, [when] trees sprout buds, the the Home Harvest begins, quickly before the grasses can poke through to the light. Family units use passed down scythes to reap the corpse of their home. Their tools are only to be sued during this holiday, many ancestors enchanting them to create a bountiful

harvest. Families ornament their tools and carve names of loved ones who passed away the previous year. They are sharpened then two family members cut their homes down tot he roots. This effort is considered a great honor.

The rest of the family take the grass and shake out the seeds. These seeds are arranged in the shape of the new year's home. More seeds creates a stronger home and a better harvest for the next year.

The grasses grow to tying height within two weeks, then to full maturity by the end of the

Birth season.

[Furniture is set aside during the beginning of this process]

The first harvest is only the beginning of the ten-day long festival. Next, the families bring their gathered leiprod and shuck them into thin strips. There strips are then layer before the farmers gerbil farm. Their feast begins, the gerbils bloating fat and happy.

Male gerbils are relocated into the female enclosure. They celebrate [the way]

fat gerbils do and create dozens --hundreds on a good harvest-- of babies. The population booms out of control, far more than any sane farmer could handle. So then comes the true feast. Elderly and the most plump are butchered and passed out to all contributing families.

Most communities come together for a great feast, but this is not necessary and many families hold private events. But what must be seen to is the offering of half the harvest tot he ancestors. Rituals include but are not limited to:

• Apply blood & oil tot he family scythe
• Set out an extra tale for spirits to sit and eat during the feast
• Leave offerings at grave sites

The themes around this holiday echo similarities all around the world: Life ends and death begins. Colder season bring an end to to the year and to many lives. From this death, life grows anew. Homes are broken down and turned into resources for shelter and food. Reverance is heald for the dead who paved the way for those living now.

Because of this symbolism, modern celebrations often involve [communing with] spirits. [They are] representations of the transition of life to death; the family aspect is the other end: death to life; celebration and feeding.