SC2020 - The Planet and Ocean tea

Within the Venerators of the Celestial parents, there is a special tea-ceremony. This ceremony not only tells the struggle of the love between the gas giant and the sea, but also symbolizes how they can connect to each other through the help of the servants and in doing so how we can stay connected with our own ancestors. During this ritual, a red-brown tea is brewed in a big pot and placed at the center, representing the gas giant. The ritual master then performs an intricate slow-motion dance with a ladel. During this the ritual master – which must be a woman wearing a flowing blue/azure dress moves very slowly herself, but swing the ladel with high speed, containing the tea within it. During this dance the ritual master elegantly disperse the tea into the cups of the surrounding worshippers who sit in a circle around the communal tea pot. Here they sit completely still with both hands in front of them and the up placed on the hands. Since the pot is kept on a fire to keep it boiling, and since the cups are held in the open palms of the worshippers it is very important that the ritual master use the swinging of the ladel to cool the tea down properly or it will burn the hands of the worshippers. However, while it might be the ritual masters fault that a worshipper burns their hands and therefor drop their cup, it causes great dishonor and shame upon the worshipper, not the ritual master. It has been used as a test of faith to poor scolding hot tea into the cups and see if the worshipper can hold on to it. Once everyone has tea in the cup, all the worshippers drink, then they get up in the reverse order that they got served the tea and spit it back into the pot. It has been heard of that for larger ceremonies the tea has been reused – some even consider this a way of binding the community together.