Elderhood Rite

The Elderhood Rite is a Vale Verdial rite of passage wherein members of society who have survived past their child-bearing or child-rearing years are officially recognized as elders within their community. Celebrants who have reached a traditional milestone of maturity are put through a unique purification ritual to signify their rebirth as wise, respected members of the Vale Verdial Community.

History

Recorded accounts of the Elderhood Rite date back to 6876 AX, when lifespans were shorter and Petalcap Vale was still comprised of a number of smaller, relatively autonomous city-states. The discovery of the medicinal properties of megaxylem latex - including antihemorrhagic and skin rejuvenating properties - around this time contributed to the plant's sudden popularity around the households of older pre-Vale peoples.

Petalcap Vale Flag by BCGR_Wurth

It became something of a stock trope in pre-Vale cultures that some older citizens would apply the latex with increasing frequency as they approached the end of their middle age - generally as a sign to the consumer of media in which the trope appeared that these people weren't quite ready to accept the reality of their approaching senior status.
Instead of becoming upset at this connotation, many older verdials began to embrace the association of the plant with the wisdom, dignity, and public respect that accrues with age, creating a sort of initiation ritual for those younger members of their own generation. These efforts led to the formalization of the Elderhood Rite, a celebration which remains in practice as of the year 10,000 AR.

Execution

The Elderhood Rite is primarily a civic holiday for the Vale Verdial people, though, because many people begin to embrace religion as they get older, the Rite has increasingly taken on Forgist undertones. Celebrants are allowed to sleep in as much as they want on the day of the Rite and, like their birthdays, often recieve bespoke gifts to commemorate their passage into a position of societal respect.
The day of the Elderhood Rite begins with low-key holiday activities in the local public square beginning in the early morning, with soft music and traditional baked goods sold at stalls being the primary attractions until sundown. The squares are decorated to fit themes which speak to common popular culture in the decade from 20 to 30 years prior - in other words, the decorations are meant to help the celebrants reminisce about the things that they enjoyed when they were growing up. "Reminiscence Boards" are installed to showcase items and news clippings from this era as well, serving as an opportunity for members of the current generation to learn about things the celebrants might never have mentioned to them; in this way, the Elderhood Rite is about establishing a cultural continuity with the past as well as celebrating the contributions of those who lived through it.
Throughout the day, celebrants who are out and about are gathered to take part in a baptism-like ritual in which they are ceremonially bathed in the latex of the megaxylem plant, a substance with medical and cosmetic properties (see Components and Tools). This is the Elderhood Rite proper. Those who are not capable of attending this ritual (e.g. due to disabling illness) are instead anointed with the substance at home and are free to attend a later Elderhood Rite as a celebrant when able.

Components and tools

Particularly large specimens of megaxylem become so large that their central trunks can accommodate an entire humanoid body; in these cases, the celebrant is allowed to slide through a freshly-cut trunk, in the manner of a snug-fitting waterslide, into a trough filled with the latex spilled by the cutting process. This fully coats the celebrant in the milky substance, an act which has the effect of cosmetically enhancing their skin for a week or two after the act. As there are not always enough trunks of this size to permit a single year's every celebrant to use them, smaller trunks can be carefully unrolled with a sharp blade and knit together to form tubular slides of sufficient size. At the bottom of the slide, others who have previously undergone the Rite use ceremonial wooden dippers to pour more of the skin-softening latex over their new peer, making sure that every part of the celebrant is covered so as to benefit from the material's rejuvenative effects.

Participants

Because the Elderhood Rite explicitly celebrates the minting of a new elder member of the Vale Verdial society, outsiders are generally not permitted to attend the celebration unless they somehow have familial connections to a current or former celebrant (i.e. the human wife of a verdial man who turned 40 in the previous year).

Observance

The Elderhood Rite is typically held on the first Pekuni of Ikaudun for all members of Vale Verdial society who have either entered natural menopause or reached the age of 40 in the preceeding year, whichever comes first and is applicable to the individual. This timing, near the beginning of the fall season, is meant to symbolize both the inaguration of the second half of a celebrant's life and a wish that the winter years of the celebrant's life remain far in the future.
The relatively young age of celebrants (as most verdial women remain fertile up to around age 50) exists because, in previous eras where medicine was not as advanced, the many dangers of life in a Distal-adjacent cube layer would tend to claim individuals' lives earlier than in modern times. Indeed, because of the beautifying properties of the megaxylem latex, many spouses of celebrants find their attraction to their mates rekindled in the aftermath, leading to the birth of so-called Sons or Daughters of Wisdom in the late spring and early summer of the following year.

Primary Related Location

Petalcap Vale (municipality)

Related Ethnicities

• Vale Verdial