Summer Solstice Festival

The Summer Solstice Festival is a very popular celebration across multiple cultures in Hysal. As the name suggests, the festival is done to celebrate the arrival of the summer solstice. In Solian countries, the festival is also a religious holiday with multiple days of celebration before the actual summer solstice.

History

It is unknown for how long exactly this weeks long holyday has been observed, but we know that by the middle of the First Age, it had already spread across most of Enaskia, even to places where Solianism was not practiced, suggesting that the celebration may not have been rooted in religion as deeply as it it now in the third Age. With the arrival of Solianism in Arros, the holiday took root on the continent too. However, just like in Enask, the holiday started to be adopted by Non-Solian countries also and intergraded into their cultures. A good example of this phenomena occurring is in the Kavasian Empire, where the kingdom that preceded the empire never adopted Solianism and in fact was actually one of the early adopters of Choranism, yet their proximity and frequent subjugation by the Carathengan Empire introduced them to the holiday and they adopted it in their culture.

Execution

For about a week before the Solstice, people are free from work and instead spend their time with friends and family.
The evening before Solstice day, children are asked to draw pictures of the sun on pieces of paper. These paper are then used to make paper lanterns that are released when midnight arrives. This practice was borrowed from the Taonese, who light up paper lanterns during their new years festival. In the Darnian Calendar, a new year occurs on the day of the summer solstice.
In Solian Countries specifically, a piece of Shadestone is taken inside the temple or temples of every city to be crushed by a silver tipped hammer. This is meant to symbolise that Light always wins against Darkness.
In the temple of Saol, inside the City of Solthar, the High Rayn may perform a ritualist light show with his staff, called the The Hand of Saol

Observance

In Hysal, the Summer Solstice is always on the 21st of September. The Summer Solstice festival occurs during that day and a little bit before, starting usually a week or two before. In Kingdom of Darnia, the Festival lasts about two weeks and ends the day of the Solstice. In the Kingdom of Gysia, the festival only lasts three days and starts two days before the solstice.

Other names: 

• The Sun festival
• New Years (Darnia)

Important Locations

• City of Aksa
• City of Kalosanthar
• City of Lyras
• City of Naqesera
• City of Solthar
• City of Vrahlis

Related Ethnicities

• Darnian

Associated beliefs:

• Solianism