Aqualon Moth Related Festivals in the Yamato Kingdom Timeline

Moth Related Festivals in the Yamato Kingdom

Moth Related Festivals in the Yamato Kingdom

Annual Occurences

These festivals and feast days are held annually in the Yamato Kingdom and all have to do with or are centered around moths as a theme.

  • First Day of the First Month
    Rurimon Kumotsu Festival 瑠璃門供物 ("Offerings to Lapislazuli")
    Religious event

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    Kamigami 神々 ("Various Gods") is a sect of the ur-soulism religion that is practiced widely in the Yamato Kingdom. The general belief that people and sometimes even animals that die with intense negative emotions or great enlightenment may have their soul become stuck between this world and the Daihô is held very deeply in Yamato culture. This is also why they are considered to be very superstitious since it is natural to them to believe in the existence of incorporeal spirits that sometimes influence their lives and, in rare cases, great amalgamations of contented souls that form powerful entities that can be benedictive or vindictive, depending on their narrative. They are often attached to pieces of lands and are called "kami". Often the Yamato people will construct shrines to honor them and bring them offerings, a custom attached to the ideas of ur-soulsim, which also enshrines the five ur-souls of the elements.

    On the first day of the new year, offerings of shishisô fur are brought to the shrines of the kami Rurimon Kumotsu (a name roughly meaning "The Lapislazuli One of Ten Thousand Moths"), who is said to be comprised of the souls of over ten thousand moths. He is often depicted as a murasaki moth with a snake-like, long body, one hundred and six wings, and a lustrous blue color, which is said to be the elevated hue of murasaki purple turned blue by his enlightenment.

    The offering is made to him to appease him and ask for his blessing of the land since murasaki moths hibernate in winter and require a small storage of shishisô when they wake in spring. This offering of shishisô to Kumotsu is meant to keep him well-fed during winter, so he does not awaken hungry and perhaps angry from his sleep.

  • 20th Day of the Third Month
    Reitô Matsuri 霊灯祭 ("Spirit Lantern Festival")
    Religious event

    On the first day of spring (the 20th of the third month), the people of Yamato gather at night and tie lit paper lanterns to the mooring claws of wild moths that have been caught over the course of the month. Each light that is being carried off into the night represents the well wishes to souls that have departed this world during the previous year.

  • 29th Day of the Third Month
    Murasaki Hanami 紫花見 ("Purple Petal Viewing")
    Cultural event

    At the end of the third month, the benibasumomo 紅葉李 ("cherry plums") begin to bloom, dying the cities of Yamato in beautiful pink colors. The first day of the blooming is celebrated by droves of people putting up blankets in parks, bringing out their murasaki moths to fly about (as they eat the flowers in spring) and spread their fragrant moth dust around. There the people usually picnic and drink. While the bloom lasts for around two months, it is the approximate first day that is considered a national feast day, and many song, dance and archery performances are usually attached to it.

  • Seventh Day of the Sixth Month
    Yamahanabi 山花火 ("Mountain Fireworks")
    Cultural event

    The Yamahanabi is a much anticipated festival in the Yamato Kingdom. Every year in the sixth month in summer, elaborate fireworks are set off using intricate shells launched from mortar-like bamboo tubes. The fireworks are so impressive that people from all over Aqualon regularly travel to the Yamato Kingdom to witness the Yamahanabi. The fireworks themselves, however, are only part of the show. During the day, before it is dark enough for proper fireworks displays, food and game stands are set up everywhere and people dance and form long lines, dressing themselves up in large yarenma moth costumes. This, in conjunction with the fireworks, is meant to scare off all the bad spirits that were too bitter to let go during the Reitô Matsuri during the third month.

  • 18th Day of the Ninth Month
    Gatakoage 蛾凧揚げ ("Moth Kite Flying")
    Cultural event

    During the ninth month of the year when autumn approaches, the strong winds around the Yamato Mountain Range begin to pick up. Starting some time in the 4th century GE, the children's past time of kite flying began to pick up popularity among adults, and a couple of neighbors in Yamaseki began to craft elaborate kites styled after murasaki, yarenma, and sensô moths. The fad began to spread like a wildfire and in time became a tradition. Today the Gatakoage is a national celebration that is held on the eighteenth day of the ninth month, during which people eat gayaki, a sort of moth-shaped pastry, that is filled with sweet red bean paste, and fly colorful, moth-shaped kites.

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