Nyre Fishing Festival
This was Issa's first festival that she is old enough to properly celebrate. She was enamored with the pretty shells and the little fish-shaped crackers. Her mother spent part of it shopping around the market for those once a year supplies, spices brought in from the ships and other exotic ingredients.
I had Issa on my shoulders as she pointed the way toward any brightly colored thing, I could feel crumbs falling into my hair as she ate her third cracker of the day. It was strange, everywhere I turned their were Loyalist weaving through the crowds. I don't know what they expected, some crazy person doing magic in the middle of the square?
Toward sunset Issa started getting fussy, all the excitement must have become overwhelming. I handed her the last cracker and started heading back toward the house getting Ismene attention from where she was haggling for something. Issa was still crying when I past her to her mother. I saw her drop her half eaten cracker on the ground, I picked it up in surprise, it was slightly burnt, a small waft of smoke rising from it. I looked to my daughter, then beyond her to some Loyalists walking the crowd. I dropped the cracker and crushed it under my heel. I think one day of festival is enough for Issa, I'll stay home with her tomorrow, give her mother a break.
History
The first fishermen to settle the land by the sea created this tradition.
Components and tools
Fish,other sea creatures, seaweed, netting and line are the majority of the festivals components.
Observance
At the end of the main fishing season the city of Nyre has a week long festival celebrating that year's bounty and praying to the god Nereus, the old man of the sea in which the first settlers named derived their towns name. The townsfolk cook all sorts of recipes involving fish, seaweed, clams and oysters. Bread is made in shapes of fish,sea stars, and sand silvers. Netting and fishing line decorate the booths selling seashell jewelry made with braided line. The fishermen are celebrated with small gifts from friends and family. Fishing contests are held on the docks and on personal boats. Diving contests are also held near shore.
Sand silver=sand dollar
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