A curious note about the calendars of the east: they bear more in common with those of the extreme north than to the standard calendar. Their winters are extremely cold, with the ground freezing to ice and frozen snow falling from the sky. Because of this they separate what most would call winter or harvest season into 2 separate seasons: “Autumn,” or Harvest season, and “Winter,” their frozen cold season. Their growing season is compressed into a much shorter period of the year, and their spring is far less rainy than ours: the flooding and mudslides that are a constant Sowing threat here are virtually unknown in the east.
Their summers also largely lack the typhoons that plague Stormrise and Sulter: they see such storms occasionally, but they are not a routine during their summer months.
Their trees, like those in the north of Odo Kas, lose their leaves for the winter: for this reason they often refer to the autumn months as “fall.” Eastern winters, much like those of the north, are treacherous and filled with violent storms and frigid temperatures.
| Urek | Eastern | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sowing (Spring) | Rainfall | Wintermarch | Winter |
| Riverswell | Gloomfrost | ||
| Grainleaf | Winterwane | ||
| Mudwash | Bloomtide | Spring | |
| Growing (Summer) | Cloudbreak | Plantmoot | |
| Sear | Suncrest | ||
| Stormrise | Sunmarch | Summer | |
| Sulter | Sunwane | ||
| Harvest (Winter) | Windfall | Palesun | |
| Rootburrow | Leaffall | Autumn | |
| Sapping | Harvesttime | ||
| Hellebore | Lowsun |
| Day (Urek) | Day (Eastern) |
|---|---|
| Sundi | Sunday |
| Mundi | Moonday |
| Dawasday | Dewsday |
| Wettingsday | Weathensday |
| Aertaday | Earthday |
| Purdi | Fireday |
| Pashadi | Cybelesday |
While holidays abount throughout the year, the intercalary holidays are of special import:
Carefully hoarded delicacies emerge from larders and are shared freely. Music fills the air from daybreak until deep into the night and mead flows freely. Gambling is sanctioned citywide on this lucky day, and the Grenna lottery always yields a big payout for one lucky person. It is a fortuitous time to find love, and those who don’t can at least hope to spend the night in the company of like-minded souls.
Grenna takes place on the day preceding the Sowing equinox, during Grainleaf. Grainleaf weather is typically wet and gloomy, as is most of Sowing season, but is also when new reeds of grain burst from the ground and reach for the sky. Their green chutes and leaves, and their rapid growth, are the symbols of Grenna, the festival of youth, vitality, curiosity, and creativity. This is also the time when poppies and lupine bloom. People give gifts of flower poseys to their neighbors and sweethearts during Grenna. They also give gifts of seeds and seedlings. It is bad luck to allow a plant received as a Grenna gift to die.
In Moru Kel, prayers and small offerings are made throughout the day in the Rose Temple and Temple of Sala, filling the air with the smell of sandalwood incense and tallow candles. But the celebration truly begins at dusk. Chanting and dancing fill the streets as the sun sets between Kern Apsala and Kern Apurnu, the central — and closest — of the four peaks that tower above the tiered city. Necklace jellyfish congregate in Kilpo Bay. They glow in shades of sunrise: rosy purples and oranges, bronze, bright white. Fireflies flash citron hues of green and gold at the edge of the woods. Fires appear in braziers on the roof gardens in the tiers, and the smell of summer sausages, bechi, and fish mingle with the lingering incense and tallow smoke.
The Market Square is cleared of brush and debris for a huge pyre, lit just after sunset. Fire dancers perform in the streets, with the best of them joining acrobats, dancers, jugglers, and magicians to perform a choreographed “spectacular” in the People’s Theater, accompanied by musicians and a chorus. They perform two shows, with the second ending after midnight. Many revellers keep the party going, but — unlike the Festival of the Sky — most will have to face the harsh light of a work day come dawn.
Karpa, in honor of Aerta, Koros, and Semoz, occurs on the day preceding the Reaping equinox. Karpa is a celebration of abundance and is a fortuitous time for planting root vegetables and conceiving children. It is also a time for preserving and preparation. Offerings of mead, bread — traditionally made from maize flour — and the blood and choice organs of freshly slaughtered grazing animals are best for showing gratitude for a fruitful harvest. Gold crowns best reflect the color of corn and wheat, but silver sovereigns or copper pennies are fine offerings for those of lesser means.