River Offerings

Throughout the centuries, winter has been seen as the most cruel season of all. There has been a long standing tradition of welcoming spring back into your area the moment the snow started melting on the highest peak nearby. People would gather and celebrate the ending of the reign of frost by baking delicious pastries and sharing them with the first travelers who would make it to their settlement after winter as a good blessing of the nicer times to come.   Unfortunately, in recent years there have been many floods and disasterous frequent rains who made it nearly impossible to view spring as a good blessing after a harsh winter, it almost felt as a punishment for the celebrations. Divination experts proclaimed that the spring dieties are feeling neglected by the respect and reverence of winter and should they not get an equal part in offerings, they will come and take it by force.   The tradition of welcoming spring in your village turned into appeasing the rivers with offerings made out of paper and pieces of fabrics, that are folded and painted with words of blessings and made into the shape of the pastries that were once the prominent symbol of spring. More people now participate in making these paper pastries than in the actual baking and instead of gathering in households, near the fire, to celebrate - people now visit the springs and rivers in their area and toss paper pastries in there to appease the water dieties and all the spirits who have been taken by floods in the past.   Slowly the celebrations turned from welcoming the milder weather and focused more on the fact that water can give life as easily as take it and the happy mood of celebrations shifted to melancholy, reverance and remembering those we have lost along the years or throughout the winter itself.