Equinox Open Invitation

History

The Equinox Masquerade is time honored celebration and nearly ubiquitous holiday across Khthon, and is one of the highlights of just about every social calendar. There are far, far fewer places however that remember its roots and still practice those ancient rituals. There may be the scattered small village that keeps to tradition, but the largest and most well known enclave for the old ways is without a doubt the ancient city of Stonemoot in Albion. Like much of that place, new words are used to refer to ancient tradition, and Stonemoot now calls their observance the Equinox Open Invitation.
Whatever it's called, the nature has remained unchanged since the beginning: to calm and placate the local spirits. the Equinox is the point in the year furthest from Edrannon, and so the point at which spirits, and the Fey in particular, are at their most restless. In the ancient days when their influence was strongest and mortals knew far fewer ways to deal with them, significant effort had to be put into avoiding negative interactions whenever someone went into the woods or even just away from town. It was discovered to be much easier to lean into the nature of the Fey and provide them an outlet than to try and fight against it, but seeking them out to do so would be disastrous. So, a ritual was devised to accommodate them just enough while doing so as much on mortal terms as possible: a great feast and festival would be thrown right in the middle of mortal settlements, with meticulous rules and organization devised to limit the disruption the Fey and their ilk are wont to cause, and any and all of them are invited contingent upon adhering to the laid out customs. The mortals have a party in wild excess of their usual ability due to the participation of the spirits, the spirits are given an outlet for their energies and significant interaction with mortals, and the situation is mostly prevented from spiraling out of control by the prescribed nature of the festivities. It's not a mystery how it grew to be so popular and endured in some form after much of its original purpose was lost.

Execution

The most important aspect of the entire proceeding, and the part that has mostly gone by the wayside in most Equinox Masquerades, is the actual invitation made to the local spirits. It works best if it is written and structured like an actual invitation with great care given to the restrictions within, but leaning heavily on social expectation and general statements about respect for hosts rather than any sort of legal framework accounting for every eventuality, the Fey will find any loophole you give them.