Dead of Winter Feast
History
Having started during the deepest descent of the glaciers, this feast began as a way of people to survive the brutal winter before food shortages became common and hunting scarce. The Dead of Winter Feast was meant, originally, for people to eat plentifully and gain weight before the harshest part of the year and increase the survival chances of everyone, particularly in children, by allowing whole communities to share food with one another. Although this is no longer an issue in much of the world, and winters far less brutal in the modern era, the feast is still widely celebrated as a fun gathering. It is particularly popular as a tradition among aspiring chefs, who seek to use the holiday as way of 'earning their stripes' so to speak, in proving they are a worthy cook.
Execution
The feast occurs on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, as a gathering of friends, family, and neighbors to feast before the harshest part of the season. Although no longer entire villages and towns coming together to share food as it once was, the feast starts early in the morning as friends, family, and neighbors will gather at the largest house with the best and largest kitchen to help prepare food, bringing their own ingredients to be worked into the meal.
The day is filled with drinking, cooking, and eating, with no particular overarching ceremony. In the modern era, a common tradition during the holiday is to pit members of one's family against one another in competitions to see who can make the best food, to the benefit of all attending. Many also will forcibly make their friends and loved ones with no cooking skill at all join in for the sheer fun of it, and to hopefully goad them into learning to cook for themselves.
Components and tools
Plenty of red meat, fish, grains, and hearty tubers such as potatoes and carrots are a staple of the feast and make up the bulk of the ingredients used in dishes served during the feast. Typically, a roast of some kind is made of cow, elk, deer, caribou, or boar, although some regions will substitute it for pork or a large bird. A second course of fish, typically river or lake fish, is served with vegetables and followed by a hearty stew and portion of potato bread.
Alcohol is also a necessity among traditionalists. if not for drinking, but as an ingredient in many of the food items. Generally, berry wines, mead, or fermented teas will be served hot with fresh fruit such as blackberries, blueberries, or lemon slices and spices as a garnish. Alcoholic beverages specifically for the feast can also be readily bought premade and in single serve portions, although tradition says that the host is supposed to prepare the beverage themselves.
An absolute necessity to any feast, a good kitchen with plenty of cookware is a must, although there is hot debate among traditionalists of the feast and more casual practitioners on what specifically should be used. Among the older and more traditional, it is often said that a campfire, clay oven, and copper or clay pots and pans are all one needs outside of the food itself, although this is impractical for many, and most people make do with what they already have in their homes. Traditionalists also heavily debate on what food should be served in, arguing that anything other than wooden bowls and eating any other way than directly out of the cookware is blasphemous.
Participants
This holiday is primarily associated with Ludovic, the God of Polecats, due to his associations with feasts, slaughter, and winter. Ludovic is typically the most widely worshipped god during the Winter Feast, but not the sole one. In Asia, Japan in particular, Ryoma, God of Tuna will often replace his role as a god of bounty and peace.
Gods often associated with hunting also are typically revered on this holiday with offerings given in thanks for the animals used in the holiday's meals, along with Shia and Mora as the feast is deeply connected to the cycle of life and death.
The feast is often celebrated in tightly knit communities and large families, being particularly popular with Centari, Werewolves, Omnia, and Vampires. Any person with a career in a culinary field is expected to have a great interest in the holiday and be the host.
Important Locations
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