Haryameni Harin

In Andaperna, one of the main lifestocks are sheep. These relatively small and versatile creatures produce milk, meat and wool, even in the often rough conditions in Andaperna. Thus it is no wonder, that sheep play a role in Andaperna rituals, no matter the ethnicity. While lifestock is one source of necessary ressources for the people, the other is agriculture, which yields abundant harvests among the rivers, due to fertile mud deposits, but is far less successful further inland. To improve yields the Andaperna people perform a ritual called Haryameni Harin, which has a long history, but has more recently undergone a major change - in favour of the sheep.

The name of the ritual translates to 'We bury a sheep'. This somewhat unwieldy name might point to either a non-native origin of the ritual or to a mutual borrowing of a ritual among the different ethnicities of Andaperna, as is often the case. The rituals name hints at what used to be a historical thruth: clay tablets describe the ritual with the burial of a live sheep as the core part to fertilize the earth goddess symbolically by uniting her with the male sky god. Fluffy, woolly sheep resembling clouds were seen as his symbol.

Clay tablets dating back to the Era of the Trees tell of sheep-related rituals to ensure the fertility of the more arid and barren lands away from the rivers. In the past it was indeed custom, to bury a life sheep as part of the Haryameni Harin, which was known under several names in the texts. As the ritual was seen as an act of fertilization, the sheep sacrificed had to be a ram. Through observation, people found out, that the soil indeed got more fertile around where the rams were buried. Further away from the place where the sacrifice took place, conditions remained unchanged, though. As a result, the Haryameni Harin was changed by multiple priests in multiple ways, as many sought more efficient ways to appease the gods and improve the outcome of the ritual. Eventually, people found the wool to be the presumably most favoured part of the sheep, as places where the fleece was buried yielded more crops for a longer time than where other parts were buried or bodily fluids spilled.

In contemporary Andaperna culture, live sheep are no longer being sacrificed for this ritual. Rather, the rams get shorn and their wool gets worked into the ground on stretches of farmland that are currently fallow. Wool, while being a ressource for fabric production, is an overabundant product of the many sheep of Andaperna. As the climate is mild to warm and only seldomly do temperatures fall below freezing, it is the most disposable good won from sheep. On the other hand it makes for a wonderfully effective fertiliser. Crop yields are increased greatly by the Haryameni Harin, which today is a ritual celebrated by many in small, local festivals.
The ritual starts with a step calles halzayantas alpus 'calling the coulds', which consists of separating the rams of each herd from the ewes. The rams then get shorn, their wool representing the clouds, which symbolise the sky god. During the ritual priests of the temples to the sky god and priestresses of the temple to the earth goddess walk around the hallow fields, libating a mixture of beer and sheeps milk, singing incantations. Attendants pluck the shorn off fleeces apart before carrying them first to the temple to the sky god, then to the temple to the earth goddess. Locals form a merry pageantry, drinking beer and singing hymns to the gods. The final act consists of scattering the small shreds of wool onto the fields. This last step is called miyataryas titanuntas.
The miyataryas titanuntas ends with every person involved, except priests and priestresses, being handed a hallowed hoe. Now the crowd becomes quiet and the priests of the sky god position themselves to the East of the fields and the priestresses of the earth goddess to the West. They start a long, amoibaeic incantation, which crosses over into a mantra-like chant, during which the people on the field swing their hoes to the rhythm of the chant until it ends. The wool is thusly worked into the soil and the sheep metaphorically buried.

The priests and priestresses withdraw to the temples and the people head back to their homes, enjoying the rest of the day with more eating, drinking and singing.