Pŭlle: The birth of the sun

A Kimiut tradition celebrated across Southern Iasteron, Pǔlle is a three-day festival that marks the first sunrise after midwinter.
Originating with the deepest southern nations, Pǔlle is necessarily celebrated at different times of year across the continent, with the festivals further south being the largest and most elaborate. The first sunrise of the year is celebrated as the 'birth' of the light, and many Pǔlle traditions reflect birthing and birthday celebrations.

Ceremony

Prior to the actual events of the ritual, families will have extinguished all lights and lanterns in their home, leaving the hearthfire to last, often only a few hours before sunrise. The dark is broken only by the qennʼǔnitau - a ceremonial oil lamp fueled by blubber or seal-oil - and the family gathers around the lamp, praying together and telling stories about Pǔnuk and Ulǔ, the twin deities of day and night, and Taggsuk, the trickster, and waiting for the sunrise.
As the sky begins to brighten, children dressed in a cottongrass and seal-skin tunic, playing the role of Tunuk Who-brings-the-light, run around the settlement shouting and banging on doors to summon everyone to bring their qennʼǔnitau to the ceremony site. This is either a designated space outside of the settlement or the village square. At the direction of the Nuklǔm (the Firekeeper), every light in the crowd is extinguished. In the darkness that follows, the community brings out instruments and begins to play loud music to encourage the sun to rise and return light to the world. Nearby settlements, which may have little to do with each other during the year, match their music to each other's, collaborating in the summoning of the sun.
Once the sun passes the horizon, the Nuklǔm lights a central fire, from which every family relights their qennʼǔnitau. A meal is cooked on the new fire and shared among the community, with offerings left to the sun, Pǔnuk, Ulǔ, and Taggsuk. The children of the community recieve small gifts - most often ivory or bone charms, a new knife-sheath, or equipment such as a fishhook and line.
While the meal is cooking, there is a ceremonial tug-of-war, with teams divinded between those born in the day and those born in the night. The winners of the contest earn the right to serve their community in the following meal, while the losers must allow themselve to be served as if they were children or infirm. A child's tug-of-war may follow, though there is no penalty for the losers.
After an offering to the ancestors-to-come (the children who will be born in the coming year), herbal tea is given to everyone in attendance, from oldest to youngest, in a shared cup that represents the sharing of community, tradition, and knowledge.
After the meal is a play - a farce that retells the story of how Taggsuk tricked Pǔnuk and Ulǔ into becoming the day and night. The play is interrupted by two actors wearing stilts and dressed as giants or evil spirits, whom the married men and women fight off, and symbolically kill and dismember. While this is happening, the single adults defend the children from the giants' invisible minions. The event ends with the giants defeated and the community safe for another year.
After the battle, the adults may pair off into a 'Pǔlle marriage', while everyone else enjoys ball games, footraces, music, and singing.

Qennʼǔnitau

Qennʼǔnitau differ from normal oil lamps (nʼǔnitau) mainly in their size. Both are made of soapstone, with a cottongrass or moss wick, and fed by oil. Although normal lamps have switched to domestic phykol, especially in the northern regions, Kimiut tradition requires a qennʼǔnitau to take blubber or seal-oil.

Primary Related Location

Iasteron