Feast of the Shawl
This holiday, marking the de facto beginning of winter in northerly clime of Nor’, ties together multiple legends and celebrations, both Gaalite and heathen. Formally, it celebrates Ioann the Phygene’s finding of the Godbearer’s scarlet shawl following her Occultation. Her caretaker’s sudden discovery of the relic resulted in his mystical vision of the End of Days, which he dutifully recorded in the final book of the Sacred Writ. Kivi’s shawl would henceforth be regarded as the cover that protects humanity from the horrors of that time, until the seals on the Garden are broken. Subsequently, the shawl has appeared in a number of places that have been spared from impending destruction.
The linkage of this holiday to the beginning of winter is the gently protective layer of snow that covers the land after the first snowfall, which typically occurs at around this time. Pesants respond to this occurence by praying to the Godbearer for the survival of their livestock, and for a gentle winter (but also by fixing up and winterizing their houses). Unmarried young women pray to be covered by a headscarf (i.e. to be married, and therefore, dressed in a headscarf) before the winter truly strikes, and perform rituals to divine the identity of future spouses. On this day, old handiwork, like bast shoes or straw matresses were burned, while old-spun threads and fabrics are cast into a well, Any spinning or weaving were prohibited on this day, to avoid poking Kivi in the eye. It is easy to detect the presence of a pagan divinity underneath the Godbearer's imagine, and given the imagery of a protective cover for the earth, the prominence of divination, and the prohibition against spinning, that divinity is obviously Mokosh. In strongly heathen areas, she is still explicitly honored, if not on this precise day, then on the following Day of the Godbearer (Bogorodits
On this day, the leshys of the forest are said to enter hybernation (or, indeed to fall through the earth) until the following spring. On the eve of the Feast of the Shawl, their howling is supposedly heard, and only very brave or foolhardy souls will dare enter the forest on that day.
The linkage of this holiday to the beginning of winter is the gently protective layer of snow that covers the land after the first snowfall, which typically occurs at around this time. Pesants respond to this occurence by praying to the Godbearer for the survival of their livestock, and for a gentle winter (but also by fixing up and winterizing their houses). Unmarried young women pray to be covered by a headscarf (i.e. to be married, and therefore, dressed in a headscarf) before the winter truly strikes, and perform rituals to divine the identity of future spouses. On this day, old handiwork, like bast shoes or straw matresses were burned, while old-spun threads and fabrics are cast into a well, Any spinning or weaving were prohibited on this day, to avoid poking Kivi in the eye. It is easy to detect the presence of a pagan divinity underneath the Godbearer's imagine, and given the imagery of a protective cover for the earth, the prominence of divination, and the prohibition against spinning, that divinity is obviously Mokosh. In strongly heathen areas, she is still explicitly honored, if not on this precise day, then on the following Day of the Godbearer (Bogorodits
On this day, the leshys of the forest are said to enter hybernation (or, indeed to fall through the earth) until the following spring. On the eve of the Feast of the Shawl, their howling is supposedly heard, and only very brave or foolhardy souls will dare enter the forest on that day.
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