Rituals of Sun & Moon

Overview

What is there to live and to die for in the long life of an Elf? What is there to believe in, to lay your eyes on and to pray to? The Eternals? Demons? The Sun and the Moon? Something brighter, something darker?

The short answer to all of these questions is: Yes, all of that. Since the Elves knew the Eternals since the time of the Creation, they worship the Eternals and their respective heavenly body in the sky. The Sun for the Eternal Life and the Moon for the Eternal Death.

During the time of the Creation there were not rituals. There were interactions, meetings with the Eternals. But over time the Eternals had more and more to do and the Elves got split up, argued about the Eternals and how to worship them. The original rituals and believes got passed on, varied in details over time, new rituals were found and traditionalised, trickled down over generations. Adapted, evolved.

Lets take a look, shall we?

Major Rituals

Anarethil, the Sun Dew Ritual (Life)

The Sun Dew Ritual is held in the early days of spring, when the ice breaks and the snow melts. The feast is small and only lasts around a day to celebrate the survival of the last winter. They thank the Eternal Life and the Sun to grow stronger again and to sustain them with enough energy to bring out the seeds, readying the fields and let nature do her work.
The ritual itself is rather simple, even in the capital of Aeloria. The Elves come together with their best meals, be it appetiser, starter, main course, dessert or just small snacks they had saved from the last year and before the winter.
Bonfires are burning, musicians are playing, people are laughing, chatting, cuddling, what an Elf does during such rituals. By the start of the sunset the Twilight Priest recites parts of the Book of Life, the Book of Death, and sometimes the Book of Twilight. During this the Elves pray to the Eternal Life, the Sun, to thank her for being here another year, another cycle where she grants her gentle touch to the earth, the Elves and every living being on Koria.
After the Twilight Priest ends with their recitings, the Elves attending the ritual have a few minutes for their own prayers before starting to the feast itself. This means a lot of dancing, eating, telling stories, are generally being good to each other until the night ends and the new day rises. During this time families, friends, lovers break out into their own homes to celebrate the rest of the day with a bit more eating, chatting, or just lay arm in arm under the sky or in their beds until they fall asleep. The ritual is normally held inside and outside of the temples.

Kuura Sten, the Moonstone Ritual (Death)

Normally commences at the start or during the first weeks of winter. Like the Anarethil it is a small and time-efficient ritual. The Elves bring out their wares, their food and offer them to the Eternal Death and the Moon of the chill night. The Twilight Priest recites from the three Books and praying to the Eternal Death and the Moon that they are kind to the Elves during the chill nights of winter.
The bonfires are burning high, musicians are playing and the Elves gather around the fires, singing songs, praying, cuddling, keeping each other warm until the feasting begins and ends when the Moon sets and the new dawn comes.

Caelithor, the Harmony Celebration (both)

The Caelithor ritual is a five-day-long ritual normally held in the middle (-lithor) of the year (Cae), annually during the equinox, where all three elven races come together to celebrate unity and harmony. It involves elaborate ceremonies, feasting, and performances showcasing each race's unique talents and cultural heritage, even when they all originated from the High Elves. The purpose is to reaffirm their commitment to peace and cooperation among their peoples.
In preparation the High Elves, Silver Elves and Wood Elves send out a delegations who are setting up the stage for the celebrations. They prep the grounds for the rituals with desks, benches, chairs, bonfires, living quarters and stages which are re-purposed after the Celebrations. The second, third and fourth days are for the actual celebrations, starting with the elves who were second place the last time and so on, rotating through the years. The Caelithor is held in a specific place so that everyone knows what, where and when to do it. They had changed it every year in the past, but it was too much of a hassle so they kept their favourite place.

Tidglans, the Break of Seasons

During the Tidglans rituals the Elves celebrate the shine (-glans) of time (Tid/tid), the passing and the change of it. In this context they celebrate the passing of time, the break and, ultimately, the change of the seasons.
After the Anarethil ritual the Elves start the sowing, make the fields ready, bring out the seeds and let nature do her work. Or Life, depends on who you ask. They tend to the fields, watch them grow and after the harvest the next Tidglans ritual commences, celebrating the - hopefully - successful and bountyful harvest.
The Tidglans ritual takes place during the change of seasons from spring to summer and from autumn to winter and is normally held at the same place each time.

Everday Rituals

Elddagg, the Morning Ritual (Life)

Elddagg is a combination of the words "eld" for fire and the word "dagg" for morning. It is basically the first ritual to commence after washing and morning toilet, preferably before the sun rises.
The former High Elven morning ritual is a rather short, sweet and important one to most Elves and is still used by every elven ethnicity. The Elf in question has to prepare a candle - or stocking up on a lot of candles - by themselves. The candle has to be infused with a silvery thread called Silvertråd which is used as the wick. It lets the flame burn with a silvery light in a very slow way.
The Elf who performs the ritual has to light up a candle and speak their prayers. Those are freestyle and can be spoken aloud or in silence. It is common, but not expected, to thank the Eternal Life and/or the Sun for another day on Koria despite the dangers of everyday life, especially when one is meddling with magic and the eternal runes.
The entire ritual concludes after roughly fifteen minutes. The candle is left to burn over the day. Normally it should last the entire day. If not, the Elf is bound to redesign the candles formula.

Analithor, the Midday Ritual (Life & Death)

"Ana" stands for (the) sun and "lithor" for the highest point of something, in this context the highest point of the sun during midday.
This ritual is entirely optional and voluntarily. During the early days of the Elves it was commenced with the close and/or extended family and sometimes friends in a shared meal. In communities it is still celebrated, but like Aelurie more isolated Elves can't share their meal(s) with other Elves except when they choose to. So the ritual itself consists of a small snack, a tiny drink, maybe a candle and a thank-you-note or -prayer to the Eternals before the Elf is turning back to their daily life.
The entire ritual shouldn't last long. During the old days it was celebrated for around two hours with eating and chatting, but was densed down over the centuries to around ten to fifteen minutes. The preparations might be longer than the entire ritual itself.

Vakaith, the Evening Ritual (Death)

"Vakaith" is a combination of the word "Vaka" for candle and "-ith" for night. This ritual is - like Elddagg - a general ritual and performed by every elven ethnicity.
It ties in with the Elddagg ritual. It is the same ritual in reverse. The performing Elf thanks for a survived day and prays for one more night on Koria; praying for protection against the horrors of the beings behind the veil; against the horrors of the chill night. Those prayers are also mostly freestyle and ends with the Elf extinguishing the candle.

High Elven Rituals

Guldglans, the Golden Light Ritual (Life)

The Guldglans (Goldshine) is a monthly ritual which originated from the High Elves and is only practiced by the High Elves. Wood and Silver Elves have their own rituals now.
The name Guldglans is meant to describe the radiant golden light right after dawn or the shimmering of polished gold and in this case it means the golden light of the sun right after dawn. During the last days of each month the High Elves are gathering around lakes, rivers, ponds, whatever is large enough to support the ritual.
After each passed month and right before the beginning of the next month the High Elves attend the Guldglans. The preparations are done by the temple priests and overseen by the Twilight Priest. This means setting up the tents, prepping the logistics for food, drinks, a lot of towels, and lounges. And the oil in small flasks.
The ritual itself commences right before the dawn of the new day. The Elves gather around whatever liquid area the priests have prepared, picking out a tent (or sometimes just a tree or a bush), fetching the flasks with the oil and waiting for the priests to start.
Since there are multiple Guldglans held at multiple bodies of water it is not the Twilight Priest who leads the rituals, but the temple priests and normal priests.
Once the priests start to recite from the Book of Life, the Elves unclothes in the tents, trees, bushes, whatnot, take places around the body of water and oil themselves up. Yes, that might get a bit chilly, but only for a short time. The moment the oil is getting heated up - it is designed to do this - by the sun, the Elves relax and say their prayers to the Eternal Life and the Sun, ask for her blessing during the next month and thanks her for the blessing of the last month.
After the prayers and the reciting are done, the Elves dive into the water - or sit in there if it is not deep enough - and cleanse their skin from the oil. It dissolves in the water like an alchemic substance. Some Elves might swim, others just enjoy the water, others retreat or are doing what they want. The ritual itself ends around midday.

High Elven Ritual Lakeside by CrazyEddie via Midjourney

High Elven Ritual Mountain Lake by CrazyEddie via Midjourney

Silver Elven Rituals

Daelith, the Full Moon(shine) Ritual (Death)

The name Dealith is composed of the words Morilith (Full Moon) and Daelon (Moonbeam/Moonlight). It describes the time during the full moon of every month. It is the time of the month where the Silver Elves come together to celebrate the Eternal Death and the cycle of Death as in the death and rebirth of nature and their own beings.
To do this their Death Priests - yes, original name, we know - prepare the Colosseum in their city with food, drinks, ornaments and tapestries, with woven old stories of Death while he was still walking across Koria. The preparations also include the mixing of the adoring juice, a strong alcoholic liquid mixed with thickened goat blood.
The first fourty sacrifical goats are brought into the Colosseum one after another and sacrificed on the large stone altar directly under the spot where the full moon is appearing. The goats are praised and then bled dry while their blood flows into a silver tub where other priests mix the blood with the strong red berry liquor in also silvery cups.
The Elves brought out their best dresses for the monthly occasion, some others commissioned new ones, partly years ahead. Those dresses are made to get dirty and to get cleaned easily. Every dress consists only of one or two layers of fabric at most. A really large number of dresses is nearly transparent, some are fully transparent and others aren't, depending on the likes of the wearers. It is that way because of what comes next.
Every Elf gets their silver cup filled with the liquor-goat-blood-mixture and takes their place in the Colosseum. Around 750 Elves can get their fill from one tub and right now they need to fill the tub two times for those who are allowed to participate in the ritual, only excluding the younger Elves (under 300-400 years old).
The Death Priests are reciting from the Book of Death and/or Book of Twilight, seldomly from the Book of Life herself. Because without Life there would be no Death, without Sun no Moon and without light no shadow.
While the Priests are chanting the passages from the Books, the Elves drink from their cups and with every sip they let this thick mixture run over their arms, flowing down into their dresses and over their bodies until the cups are empty and the Priests finished. The entire reciting, chanting and drinking should've cover the short timespan where the full moon was residing over the Colosseum.
Once the ritual is concluded, the Elves are left alone to do what they want. The night is still young and the drink was strong. Some are going home to wash up, others not. The Colosseum is rinsed and cleaned during the next midday.

Silver Elven Ritual by CrazyEddie via Midjourney

Ritual drunken elf by CrazyEddie via Midjourney

Watch out, a mad and bloody elf! Proceed with caution!

Wood Elven Rituals

Rhiannonathariel, the Red Solar Meditation (Life)

The Rhiannonathariel, the Red Solar Meditation Ritual, is a lonesome ritual, despite of the more social Wood Elves. The Wood Elves are not many anymore after the war with the demons and the Emerald Planes are slowly recovering with the help of the Elves and the Druids.
The Rhiannonathariel is a ritual which is held every three months by every Wood Elf. Each of them calculates their own three months starting from the first Rhiannonathariel they have ever carried out on their own. So there is basically not a month or a week without a Rhiannonathariel somewhere in the woods or in one of the huts.
To commence the ritual the Elf needs incense, blood, and in sunlight dried leaves from a specific plant in two huge portions. The Elf has to brew a soup with half of those sun-dried leaves, it should result in a thick broth which glows faintly in the dark. If it does not, the plant hasn't sucked up enough sunlight and the Elf needs to wait a little more. The safest way to ensure the right time is to brew small cups with only a few leaves. If the broth sparkles, the leaves are ready.
If the leaves are ready, the Elf brews the broth inside their own hut and once it is finished, the incense is ready - or incense candles - the Elf goes to their spot outside in their garden or at a lake, pond or whatever. They roll the rest of the leaves to a slender cone and put it aside. They cut their hand or finger for a bit of blood to put in the glowing broth, which should emit a faint red glow with a bit of green in it. The incense/incense candles are to be lit, the clothes shouldn't be too tight and then they smoke the leaves, drink the broth and inhale the incense smoke before meditating.
What happens next? That depends on them and their relationship with the Druids, the plants, trees, animals and the Eternal Life herself. Some are having conversations with the Eternal, some are having deep dreams and some kind of communication with the nature around them. Deep dreams are a state where the Elf transcends for a short period of time into a state where they can "hear" the plants and animals. Others are just having their wildest dreams and can only remember fractions of it. And others get precise instructions, guidance, answers, hints, and maybe even visions.
And all of it is true. Because the Sun in the leaves, the life in the broth and the incense are elevating the senses, enhancing the experience.

Female Wood Elven Ritual by CrazyEddie via Midjourney

Male Wood Elven Ritual by CrazyEddie via Midjourney