Verdanczes
The growing season reaches its culmination in late Ostlaet on the Cravvik Isles, and with it comes Verdanczes: a full day and night derived from the story of Libere and Ulfur. At its heart, it is a holiday for adolescents to celebrate and experiment with deific worship. Children who are too young to engage in permanent worship of the gods paint and ink their bodies using temporary methods, and all are welcome to participate in religious dances. At the end of the celebration, parents gift their children handmade coats in preparation for the coming winter.
Worship through Ink
One of the main ways Cravvik individuals worship the Pyramisic deities is through tattoos. They consider the gods to always be looking down on them through the light of the sun or moons, and through their body's ink being exposed to the light, they are in constant worship of their chosen deities. Most Cravvik folk get elaborate tattoos of two to three deities they feel 'connected' with.However, mortal-deific relation is thought to develop through later adolescence, and is brought to awareness through experimentation. Painting non-permanent tattoos on one's body gives the child the ability to worship the deity in a deep, physical yet still experimental way, and isn't nearly as painful or daunting as being inked with a needle.
Libere and Ulfur
The traitor god Ulfur was cast to the mountains of the mortal realm, and the story goes that he made Libere out of his grief. Libere left come autumn, as the mountains were too cold for them, but returned each spring and summer. On the first year of their return, Ulfur decided to make them a winter coat out of his shedded fur so that they could visit him during the winter as well.
Cravvik parents will make their children fur coats throughout the winter to then be gifted during Verdanczes. In some places, the coats are often intended to be the child's main winter coat, however in other areas the coats serve as more decorative or fashionable components.
Often, flowers are put in the pockets or sleeves to give the coats a nice, floral scent when they're gifted. Parents will usually give their children the gift at midnight - the very end of Verdanczes - but are encouraged to gift it earlier if they notice their child shivering.
by mirescosmo
Coats Woven of Love
The most important point of the coat is that they're made by the parents of the child, just as Ulfur made Libere's coat himself. All parents are expected to contribute to their child's coat, and the coat should be made throughout the prior winter/spring. Most Cravvik Imperium adults worked in some other capacity, so the coat was typically worked on in small increments at a time over the course of winter, whenever there was recreational time and/or the child wasn't around.
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