Spring aging festival

Menirvins do not annually celebrate a child's day of birth.
Instead, every spring in the first week of Leonid there is a festival celebrating the children that survived the hard winter. As far as Menirvin festivals go the Spring aging festival is one of the most important. It celebrates youth, spring, and the preciousness of children.

Preparation

Work for the festival starts in the last week of Jainned, the banners add tablecloths must be mended or replaced. Special punch and fermented vegetation only served during festivals must be started early for it to be ready in time. The most time consuming part of the festivals preparation is the weaving and decoration of memorial banners for the children that died since the last festival.

Memorial banners

The banners are made from Wintergrass, dried in the smoke of cooking fires. Grass is dried in cooking smoke to link it home and family as well as to ward off insects. If no children in the area have died there is only one banner for all the children that died and weren't members of the village. If a child that is part of the village they get their own banner that is decorated by the people that were closest to them. Paints are made of ash, wood chips, and large Wood snails.

Morning and Afternoon Proceedings

At the start of the day everyone gathers in the designated meeting place. This may be the town square, a nearby clearing, or a farmers pasture. They will then play traditional games and eat food. As the afternoon wears on children that survived the winter come up to the front of the crowd, take a handful of grain, and scatter it to the wind to bring good luck; this goes from the youngest to the oldest. When the children that are about to turn sixteen, or turned sixteen during the winter come up they scatter ash with their grain. This represents the end of their childhood.

Evening Proceedings

As the sun sets it comes time for a the period of the festival honoring the children that died during the winter. Friends and family of the deceased are asked to speak up with stories of the dead child, though they are not required to. If they do not come up it is not looked down upon and will be asked again next spring. The townsfolk will then offer prayers to bless and keep the deceased children of all the world and that the children still living will live another winter. If no children in the town died a prayer of thankfulness will be offered. It is cruel to offer a prayer of thankfulness in public at the festival if another child in the village has died. After the prayers stories will be told of lost child spirits and their guides before everyone returns to their homes.

Related Ethnicities

• Menirvin