Willow Whistling
“Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.”It's hard to process grief in any form, especially the death of a loved one. For many, it can take years to let all of the emotions out, and even then still struggle to get a handle on them. In Atalanta's Swamp of Hags, life was difficult and full of danger, so it lead to many deaths, terrible accidents that no one could prepare for. As such, it's not surprising that a deadly locale was the source of this particular mourning ritual. Willow Whistling was never a formal procession. It merely was the result of those in mourning venturing among the unique fogs within the swamp and letting out their anguish where others couldn't hear. But the fog could hear, and the fog understood, and as the wind whipped the trees and howled along the riverways, the fog returned your voice but quieter, softer. You were heard, you were related, and you were to be quited, for it all would be alright. This is the process that gave people some modicum of comfort, pure venting to nature with the added benefit of nature validating it in the ears of the mourners. With the advent of modern benefits the swamps are less lethal environments, but this tradition still remains, not just for mourners but for the despairing and irate. Essentially, for anyone who needs to let out the emotions deep within them without recieving judgement, but care instead.
History
Willow Whistling is a tradition assumed to go back to before the three people groups of Atalanta began to intermingle, therefore before -3200 EE. The Willow People were those of the swamps, often fisherman, farmers, and hunters, but it was not an idyllic location. Many dangerous creatures live in those swamps, magical and otherwise, and just as many environmental hazards and mystical beings are dispersed throughout it as well.
Life was not easy in the swamps among the Willows, and so many people died, and many people mourned. At some point, those whose hearts were weighed down the heaviest would find their way into the swamps, and one way or another, release the anguish from within. The fog of the swamps has a funny effect, you see, it chokes out sound close to you, so those only as far away as five feet struggle to hear your voice, but at the same time it bounces the sound along and returns it back to you eventually.
In some ancient records, this became a ritual of grieving, to let out the pain amidst the fog by scream or by song, and to hear it come back to you, as if the swamp was using ones own words to comfort them. In time, this changed to not literal song or wailing, but instruments such as flutes and pan pipes, or simply whistling from ones own mouth.
After the unification of the people groups into the common Atalantan, Willow Whistling became officially christened as a tradition of the swamps. While people living away from the swamps didn't care for it much nor practice it, it remained a tradition in The Swamp of Hags to the south and The Devils Landing to the north. As the art of music evolved further as well, the slow, mournful elegies usually associated with the craft came to evolve into emotional songs all over Atalanta and beyond.
Execution
There is no formal execution when it comes to Willow Whistling. For many, they just journey into The Swamp of Hags (not too deep in), find a comfortable spot to sit down, and let it all out. It's generally wise to know where you're going ahead of time, and wanderers of the past have left many a camping site or raised cabin for safety. Other than that it comes to personal preperation and preference.
While it was originally designed as a mourning ritual, those who partake in it aren't strickly mourners. The depressed, the anxious, the morose, the despondent, the furious, the confused, even in some cases the joyful, anyone who has emotions to let out is welcome among the swamps, where the fog will hear your notes and the shaking of the willows will return it to you.
Components and tools
The only must-have tools for this ritual is a heavy heart and some music. In it's most traditional form, people would take thick branches from the willow trees themselves and turn them into small flutes in order to play, but any instrument will echo through the fog and the murky waters of the swamp.
Participants
Willow Whistling isn't a formal ceremony by any means, but it often is done in response to mourning, and so the family of the recently deceased, or others who knew them well enough to feel pain, is usually the people performing it.
Observance
In older times, the direct family of the deceased would spend at least two weeks in an active state of mourning, with Willow Whistling being one of their primary methods of doing so. Now, it's very free-form, sometimes being done for mere days or entire months of mourning, or even years after the fact when there are too many emotions.
Primary Related Location
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Nice touch that others have left places of safety inside the swamp for mourners.