Midsummer Festival
"The world darkens, but it is our task to preserve the light. Hope is the essential element. As long as hope remains, we endure. Without hope, all our efforts are fruitless though this place flourish for a thousand years."
~Shalim
~Shalim
History
The Midsummer Festival began within a few years of the founding of Emberhold. Certainly it is remembered that the Prophet Shalim established the tradition first. The observance of the festival cannot say to have been maintained in an unbroken line, many things have befallen Emberhold in this darkening world, but the belief in its importance remained with the people, and so at every turn that Emberhold has restored itself, the festival have been restored as well.
Observance
For seven days at Midsummer, the festival is held. At the start of the festival, recent discoveries by the archive are put on display so that the ongoing work can be seen by those who support it. Old plays, songs, and poems that have been preserved in the archive are performed. This then gives way to a celebration of new creations. Art, poetry, songs, and plays created by the citizens of Emberhold or visitors from other lands are performed - all of them works created in recent years. The celebration goes beyond art, with invention and discovery presented as well.
The culmination of the festival is the Procession. Bearing beloved creations, whether documents, garments, artistic creations, or schematics, the people process down to the lower levels and place the goods in a vault carved out for this purpose. Shalim believed that we could never truly know what was 'worth' preserving, and certainly if we only preserve those things that academics think worthy, vital aspects of our civilization would be lost. The Procession vaults can be viewed as a record of the fortunes of Emberhold, like the rings of a tree. Some vaults are simple niches with only a few oddments, others are vast chambers lined with works, others have collapsed or show signs of fire. But with each renewal of the festival, hope is preserved and knowledge laid in store for future generations to find.
The culmination of the festival is the Procession. Bearing beloved creations, whether documents, garments, artistic creations, or schematics, the people process down to the lower levels and place the goods in a vault carved out for this purpose. Shalim believed that we could never truly know what was 'worth' preserving, and certainly if we only preserve those things that academics think worthy, vital aspects of our civilization would be lost. The Procession vaults can be viewed as a record of the fortunes of Emberhold, like the rings of a tree. Some vaults are simple niches with only a few oddments, others are vast chambers lined with works, others have collapsed or show signs of fire. But with each renewal of the festival, hope is preserved and knowledge laid in store for future generations to find.
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