Wind chime festival

General overview

The wind chime festival, called Fubo Mattur in the Messellat Mdûlûns form of Tamôl, is a festival native to the southwestern states of Opeilûkûl and Ittenpu. During the summer it gets very hot and humid in that area, but despite their closeness to the sea, there is hardly any wind. The few breezes that are there, are made more perceivable by wind chimes. These cooling breezes are a phenomenon so chrished, that the indicating wind chimes even have their own festival.

Aetiology and history

The heat and humidity of midsummer must have troubled the Messellat Mdûlûn since the beginning. While older written sources exist, the topic of hot summers only became a phenomenon of Messelat Mdûlûn poetry around the year 1480 of the Er of the Earth. This is probably due to the fact, that also a considerable part of Opeilûkûls and Ittenpus fleet were destroyed in the attempt to raid the Tarrabaenian shorelines. These plans were thwarted by Asterius Poírius Acássia, who successfully obliterated the combined fleet of a few of the Mdûlûn city states.

As a result, the people of Opeilûkûl and Ittenpu were forced to stay at their homes, as there was no enemy on land to be found nearby. Instead of falling into katatonic despair, the people sublimated their energies through art. The time from 1478 until 1521 of the Era of the Earth is thus seen as the golden age of poetry and artistry of these two states. It was also during this time, that not only poems revolving around the summer breeze appear, but soon after, around 1485 also poems on wind chimes, which also became popular during that time.

The date of the first wind chime festival is unknown though. But altogether these objects, hand made by almost anyone themselves never lost their appeal. It was in 2337 of the Era of the Earth, that a poem by an otherwise unknown person mentions a festival for the first time. But whether that person came from Opeilûkûl or Ittenpu is unknown.

"Oh little crystals
you glitter so vividly
in the summerbreeze
dress'd up for the festival
singing sweet like the salur"

 - anonymous

Role in the present time

To this very day the wind chime festival has lost none of its charme. People celebrate it during midsummer almost everywhere in Opeilûkûl or Ittenpu. There are no false pretenses, this festival is purely secular and only for fun. People continue crafting chimes, elegant or lavish, innovative or traditional, simple or ostentatious every single year. In some places, definetely in the bigger settlements, fairs are held to show off and enjoy the chimes.

Ittenpu has its own peculiarity: Having been a rich port for a long time, a lot of its inhabitants are wealthy traders or retired government officials as well as their client craftsmen and artists. Every summer they hold a special little competition, giving out prizes to crafters of especially well made chimes. These chimes have become such objects of appreciation, that there are even some collectors who pay abnormally high prizes for select chimes of their liking.