Sallamanza (saijamanza)
Festival
During the rainy season in Hobrax, the mountain village of Obrexton receives rain only a few days a year. This rain creates a type of mud that is considered holy, and used to paint masterpieces over lifetimes. Villagers will spend their entire life slowly collecting the mud and adding to their leather canvas, meticulously building their life's work. Festivals are held in the town square to set up stands and paint as a community, and both finished and unfinished artwork is displayed on every available surface.Culture
The torrential downpour that occurs for three to five days every year in Obrexton was once a cause for concern; however several thousand years of this struggle for and against water evolved over time into a celebration rather than a fight. The Hobraxian citizens chose to celebrate the rain and the gifts it brought rather than hide from it, creating remarkable masterpieces with the mud it created.Religion
While the religion behind Sallamanza has not been closely studied, many ritualistic traditions have been observed around and during the time the rain falls. Canvases are prepared and set up in the days before the rain arrives, filling the village square with carefully measured spaces for each citizen, children to seniors. The waves of blank and half covered canvases are a sight to behold, and few Arcanists have ever been allowed to witness the rituals. After the rain, each canvas is delicately stored until the following year, when the next wave of creation will begin.
by sunnybirdboi via MidJourney
Each canvas created by a citizen, finished or unfinished, is displayed in the village center after their death. Flowers and gifts are placed as the canvas's base, using the art in place of a grave marker. Each family may have different death rituals - whether it be burial, cremation, or sending the body down the nearby river - but the canvases are the key to the end of life in Obrexton. This mourning ritual holds sacred traditions that date back to the Shattering, and each painting is displayed for a year and a day before being returned to the grieving family.
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