Lizaration

What is the Lizaration? The Lizaration is a Lizard folk celebration that takes place on the 13th and 14th of Areel where lizard folk gather to: celebrate their culture and birth, Choose leaders, share gifts and appreciation, announce important things, to decide if a child is that of the sun or of the moon and most importantly to take part in trials and challenges.

Sun and moon

Lizard folk are split up into two groups based on when they hatch in relation to the Lizaration, Lizard folk which hatch before the Lizaration at the beginning of the year are Lizard folk of the sun and so do their work during the day hours. Where as Lizard folk of the moon hatched after the Lizaration in the second half of the year and work during the night.

The challenges

Lizard folk are well known for having strong warriors and great crafters and so to encourage their young to get stronger and smarter every generation, trials and challenges are set up for the mid year celebration. It is both an opportunity for lizard folk to challenge each other and a place to celebrate their new generations. Lizard folk may not have 'birthdays' but they do celebrate how long they have survived in the Lizaration, if you were to ask a Lizard folk how old they were they would say they were for instance: '20 Lizarations old' ,as they refer to the amount of Lizarations they've been to as their age. Once a Lizard folk reaches 8 Lizarations they are put into the trials. Sun Lizard folk go first in the trials as they are typically awake in the day, in contrast moon Lizard folk do their trial at night.
What are the challenges? There are many different challenges and trials, those of the youngest generation in the trials take part in many different shorter challenges. Once they have reached 14 Lizarations old they have their coming of age ceremony and final mandatory variety trial that assesses their overall skills, once this is complete they get to choose what challenges and trials they take part in the next Lizaration and don't have to take part at all in the challenges if they don't want to. Though some career lines submit their employees into the challenges, such as guards and crafters.
Trials refer to a package of several challenges, here are some examples of trials: The variety trial, Warriors gauntlet, dashers vault, varieties of craft offs, performalon and many more.
Some of examples of challenges include: Tests of strength, arena battles, timed craft offs, jumping competitions, races, bake offs , dance shows, fashion competitions, maths tests, linguistic challenges amongst many more.

Gifts and announcements

In front of the main temple many long tables and pedestals are set up, traditionally Lizard folk bring large bowls to these tables full of different foods and treats. Lizard folk freely take food from these bowls and sit to the sides of buildings or wander off to challenge viewing areas and to the different craft stalls of sorts that are set up along the streets. Speeches and announcements are held by leaders in their respective areas, for instance the warrior leader may stand at the warriors gauntlet before it starts to make their speech. Personal announcements or news are also spread and discussed between regular lizard folk in small gatherings, due to the awkward scheduling between sun and moon lizard folk many of them may not be able to properly hang out during the rest of the year and may not know so much about what the others had been up to so they discuss thing in the Lizaration. As for gifts many people give each other presents in the lizaration, as the lizaration is almost like a birthday of sorts for the people so this is where they give back to each other. Gifts are also given during the sun and moon blessing ceremony to the different families who recently had their children, gifts are usually based around the different blessings like heat stones for moon lizard folk and crafts depicting the sun for sun Lizard folk.

The choosing of leaders

When a Lizard folk has an issue with the leadership of an aspect of their group or someone wants to step down a victor of the related challenge may challenge the leader to the trial. Depending on the trial just completed a later date or Lizaration is sometimes set for the trial to take place. Sometimes several trials must take place depending on the leader that is being challenged. If for some reason a leader dies the recent Lizaration winners take place in the trials for leader against each other, the victor then becomes the leader. Though if a draw or special circumstance takes place previous winners may be voted on or a temporary group leadership may take place depending on the leadership position, this is usually in order to face a threat.

History

The Lizarations were originally founded when the majority of the Lizard folk were in small tribes, back then Lizardfolk had a low 'survival rate' and so they wouldn't record 'birthdays' but the amount of times they managed to gather together collectively and so a celebration called the Lizaration was begun by several neighbouring tribes who were struggling against a large threat and wanted to celebrate their victory and how long they collectively had survived against all odds.