The Day of the Spirit

The Day of the Spirit

The Day of the Spirit is a traditional celebration almost as old as the Elemental Magics themselves. Celebrated on the birthday of the ancient Elemental Hero of Spirit, Saake Killian, the Day of the Spirit takes place annually on the third day of the eleventh month. As times grow more modern, the celebration has stretched from its origins in a few villages in central Terrum, and now is celebrated, along with the other Hero Days, across almost the entirety of Aracanus.
The Day of the Spirit was started with the key ideas of love, sacrifice, and respect, all ideals of Saake before his death.

Ancient Traditions

When the Day of the Spirit begun, it was dedicated to mourning the hero, and paying respects to his sacrifice for the good of Magic. As the celebration grew, it also grew to encompass the celebration of love, between friends, family, lovers, any kind of love.
The first tradition, still a core part of the Day of the Spirit celebrations in modern times, was the Floating of the Roses. Those paying their respects would take red roses to a body of water, such as a pond, river, lake, or ocean, and let them float away, either in full blooms, or by removing the petals and casting those out. Each of the Elemental Heroes has a particular colour or type of rose associated with them. The Hero of Spirit is associated most strongly with red roses- however, it is not uncommon to find red-and-yellow striped roses used in celebrations on this day, as a representative of Saake's love for the Hero of Earth, Abel, which drove him to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
The flowers are floated onto water, symbolising the giving, the volunteering of Saake's life to restore beauty and Magic to the world. This grows more prudent in modern times, when the roses are more often grown by Earth and Flora mages than cultivated by hand, and is, in a way, literally giving the magic back to the world.
An example of this celebration in modern times would the those undertaken at the Mage's Advanced Combat Academy, Solazone Academy. Students of the Academy band into small groups, with Earth or Flora Mages using their magical abilities to grow the ceremonial roses. These roses are then taken down to Lake Castor, the western lake on the Academy grounds, used for grief, mourning, and burial. (This is opposed to Lake Pollux's use for celebrations of birth, and joy.) The petals and blooms are floated onto the lake, oftentimes, the amount of people following the tradition means that the lake is completely obscured.

By the time they arrived to what was supposed to be the edge of the water, it was more the edge of a red sea, rose petals covering any hint of water. The majority were, of course, red, as that was the colour that was representative of Saake. However, either out of confusion, or a salute to the ancient Spirit Guardian’s love for Abel of the Earth, there was the occasional handful of yellow petals, or full blooms, floating serenely on the lake’s taut surface. -Solazone, Volume 1

Modern Traditions

As the celebrations have evolved, over time, there have been more bits and pieces added. Most of these minor celebrations are regional, such as celebratory planting of red-and-yellow roses without magic, at the base of the Gaian Tree, which is localised to villages and towns between Goldencrest and Rainfield, in Terrum. However, one tradition seems to have become integrated with the core of the Day of the Spirit, almost simultaneously and spontaneously across all of Aracanus.
This is the tradition of giving gifts of love. These gifts can be anything, from the more common ideas of chocolate, flowers, and stuffed animals, all the way over to expensive gifts such as cars. The idea is to give a loved one something that they need and will appreciate. In Aracanus, though, there is another tradition when it comes to gifts. Each person in Aracanus can use Magic, a gift from Gaia, through the power of their Soul. And each person's Soul is a different colour, subsequently, their Magic is this colour, also. It is custom in Aracanus to wear the colour(s) of your lover(s), family, or friends, as a symbol of who is looking out for you, and who others should look out for if they are to challenge you. It is a symbol of who is protecting you, and as such, on the Day of the Spirit, it is traditional to gift accessories in Soul Colours, as they are an almost-sacred mark of how much one cares about another. Before the discovery of Mana Crystals, cloth, ceramics, or metals would be stained using dye.

It was a trend that dated back to the days of Spencer Tenebrae, who had worn strips of copper and gold and silver fabric in the final battle for Tenebrae, the marks of his knights.

In more modern times, though, most Soul Colour accessories make use of Mana Crystals. Mana Crystals are pieces of translucent, clear rock that is sensitive to magic. It is possible to store a spell in one of these stones by holding it, and focusing the use of that spell into it. When the crystal is filled with magic, it glows in the Soul Colour of the person that filled it, and when it is activated, through channeling a little magic into it, or through heavy impact, the spell activates at point of impact. Mana Crystals are most commonly used in combat, such as in Solazone Academy. However, they are also useful for accurate colouring in Soul Colour accessories, adding a personal touch.

Cresa spotted a similar charm, one that could be loaded with a crystal to glow in that colour, in the shape of a leaf. The crystal was slotted in at the base of the stem, and the veins of the leaf would glow.

History

Whilst in modern times, the origin of the celebrations is lost to most outside of the Gaian Canyon itself, there are a few individuals who have had such information passed down, by word of mouth, by excerpts from ancestor's journals, by scraps of historical scrolls. It is said that the Day of the Spirit was started, originally, by the sister of Saake, Elemental Hero of Spirit; Sa-ru'ko Killian. The Day of the Spirit was the first of the five Elemental Hero Days to be celebrated, and the first celebrations took place around the Tree of Gaia itself, as this was the Hero of Spirit's last resting place. Large, ceramic bowls of water were set up in a circle around the huge base of the tree, in such places that the gentle, pink light reflected off of the surface. Over the course of the day, villagers from the settlements around the top of the cliffs, often direct descendants of the Citizens of Gaia, came down into the canyon to pay their respects by floating flower petals on the water in the bowls. Those that had known Saake, or the Heroes personally, would float entire blooms. In the first celebration, only Sa-ru'ko Killian, Rhoda Steelrunner, and Taima Oisin were present to float whole blooms, with Sa-ru'ki and Taima choosing red roses, for Saake's favourite colour, and Rhoda bringing with her a single red-and-yellow striped bloom. These colours and flowers would later become the hallmark of the celebration known as the Day of the Spirit.