Winter Light Festival

The lights festival in Yunia was originally a gathering of the people of Yunia to make lanterns and lights in preparation for the long winter night ahead. Even a summer in Yunia is covered in snow and can reach below freezing temperatures at night, but when winter comes it also brings six months of no sunlight, making it both dark and deadly. The natural inhabitants of Yunia are Lyca. Lyca have the ability to shift into wolves and the lyca from Yunia in particular have developed thick fur and a resistance to the cold along with lighter colored coats to blend in with their snowy environment.

The month before winter comes was the time when all preparations for the long night are put into their final motion. Meats are cured and stored since many animals go into hibernation during the winter, so there will be less to hunt. Another main preparation is ensuring there are plenty of candles and fuel for lanterns.

Over the years, due to so many people coming together for preparations, it became more and more lively with vendors selling or bartering for what they needed. There are also people who sell lanterns for those that need them and there are vendors for paper lanterns that assist people making their own for a more recent tradition that started because of this change in the preparations for winter. Many people like to paint their own lanterns, usually with their loved ones, and they attach a ribbon with their wishes for the winter. This new tradition is called “Sending Off the Light” and at the last sunset before winter, everyone at the festival sends their paper lanterns into the sky to illuminate the beginning of the long night and to give well wishes to make it through to spring.