Budding Festival

The Budding Festival is a major festival marking the spring equinox celebrated around the world. In Asuria, it is one of the most highly anticipated holidays of the year. It marks an end to the scarce resources of the winter months and welcome the plentiful bounty of spring.

The Commoner's Festival

Traditional festivities begin with a late morning breakfast shared between family and close friends, showing thanks and appreciation for those who one relied upon most during the cold of winter. Afterwards, people go out into the community to sing and dance, play music and watch plays, and generally enjoy themselves.
In the early evening (often at the fifth bell past noon, though this varies regionally) there is a ceremonial cutting of the cellar locks - in small villages this is often literal - the cellars are only kept locked during the cold of winter, and the locks are all cut free. In cities, household cellars remain locked, and a ceremonial lock is cut from a communal cellar containing foodstuffs prepared the night before. There is a tradition that nobody works or cooks during the hours of celebration before this, but with the rising popularity of roast pork, beef and poultry, this has become more and more of a polite fiction, with cooks and chefs in the community working together to see that roasts are seasoned and turned as needed to be ready for the night's feast, while ensuring everyone can take part in some of the festivities. After this, the feast begins - first with ready-to-serve foods like smoked meats, cheeses, soon to be joined by an increasingly complex array of foods. Everyone is expected to prepare something, even children.
At the beginning of the feast, a number of social rules are also relaxed. Dance music moves from slow and steady to fast and energetic - often there's at least one case of dancers trying to keep time to music as it increases in tempo, only letting up with only one dancer left standing. Drunkennes, usually frowned upon, is accepted and often even encouraged. Ribald songs that make one blush can be heard from mothers who would normally be threatening to wash the singer's mouth out with soap.

The Noble's Festival

For the upper class, the festival is an odd one. Traditionally held in the palace of the highest noble in the area, preparations are made in a flurry the night before. Decorations are laid out the night before, along with any foods that will last - nuts, cheeses, breads and biscuits. Hot dishes are preserved and set aside, with carefully worded instructions on how to complete the cooking process. Since the advent of arcane preservation, these have become far more varied, as more complex dishes that might otherwise spoil quickly can be made in advance. The servants then leave in the night, joining in the common festivities. This leaves the nobility to find their own fun. Food is cooked as specified by the instructions, but without servants skilled in the cullinary arts, it is rare indeed that a noble party will find the food as good as they are accustomed to. They are, however, amply provided for, and find their own fun in other ways. Mock duels are common among the more martially inclined, and, with no servants around to start rumours, many take the time to indulge in any number of vices to excess, be that drinking, gambling, or something normally rather less publicly acceptable.

The Clergy's Festival

Those who dedicate their lives to their gods usually don't indulge themselves to anywhere near the same extent, but often allow a certain loosening of morals. Orders that take a vow of silence can be heard singing out their thanks for the new spring. Daily prayers are shortened or made optional. Daily obligations to serve the people are relieved, with some taking part in festivities with the commoners, and others taking a day off from the social strain of a year of service to the needy.

Romance During the Festival

The festivities often continue well into the night, and, among adults, often carry on into the bedchamber. Many couples spend their first night together after a Budding Festival, and many more find a partner just for that night. Married couples usually stick together, but it's not uncommon for consenting couples to spend this night (and this night alone) with other partners, or indeed inviting a third partner (or more) to join them.
According to popular rumour (and probably just popular rumour), the nobility celebrate the Budding Festival away from the public so that they can "mingle" freely throughout the day and night. Who spent the night (or did what specific activity) with whom can often be heard discussed in taverns and taprooms in the days following, though of course with all the commoners attending the festival, nobody there really knows for sure.

Etymology: The Budding Festival was originally celebrated one day after the day of the first flower bud opening. This often meant festivities only included those who could be told about the flower on that day, with many Budding Festivals being celebrated by different social groups during the early days of spring. The nobility of these ancient times eventually tried to standardize this, making an official announcement of the first flower bud opening within their gardens. But by even the earliest records of the Asurian Empire, the spring equinox had become the standard across the known world. However, flowers and flower buds remain a traditional icon of the festival, with real or paper flowers being set out to decorate the festival grounds