Elven festival of the Winter Solstice

The origin of this tradition dates back thousands of years ago. it is said that it was celebrated by the first elves who appeared on Yeia. It is the only festival celebrated equally by Light and Dark elves across the globe (albeit with different meanings). For the Light Elves, the winter solstice represents the birth of the Sun, and for the Dark Elves, being the darkest day of the year symbolizes the triumph of the forces of darkness.

This tradition also varies from region to region, depending on the climate or the race of elves. In Teria for example, the Snow Elves gather around the Artificial Sun of each settlement to sing songs and religious hymns about the birth of the sun. After this, the children walk through the streets of the towns and villages singing and dancing, while cakes and sweets are thrown out of windows. Tradition has it that a quarter of these sweets are to be offered at the temple of the Sun God while the rest is to be divided equally.

To the South, crossing the Kallian Plains, the elves of the Kingdom of the Green Elves have different ways of celebrating the winter solstice. For example, the High Elves, made a procession across the street carrying torches, symbolising the triumph of light over darkness and that soon the power of the sun will prevail over darkness. Then they arrived to the main square of the city where they throw these torches to a wooden dummy representing the God of Death and Darkness, then they all have a communal meal around the bonfire that is made from the remains of the doll.

by Midjourney

The Wood Elves have a similar tradition, in which they had a communal meal around a bonfire but here the old elves give a kind of marzipan called Olumbas to the children. And in turn, the children give a kind of bread in the shape of an elf with a crown representing the sun god (symbolising that by eating it, the sunlight remains in the hearts of the elves until the arrival of spring and summer).

In the Southern regions of Teria, winter is not as harsh as in the rest of the continent, due to its warmer climate. Here, the tradition is to make a procession across the river in a wicker boat with the statue of the God. It is customary for the children and women of the villages through which the procession passes, to be dressed in their finest robes and to approach the river and sing songs and religious hymns to the God about his birth. These hymns of the Southern Elves are considered by other Light Elves to be the most beautiful songs ever composed and sung by Elves. Because the South is a melting pot of all the elven ethnic groups of Teria, other traditions, aside of the aforementioned procession, are also celebrated such as the exchange of Olumbas and the bread shaped as the Sun god , typical of the wood elves.

In Southern Seria, as High elves are the dominant groups they celebrate the Solstice the same way as the High Elves of Teria, but they also added some seris winter solstice traditions such as eating watermelons, which symbolises the memory of summer and high temperatures.

by Midjourney

On the other hand for Desert elves and Sun Elves, this is the second most important festival of the year after Howazd, the festival of the Summer Solstice. The Winter Solstice for them, as for all the light elves, symbolizes the birth of the Sun, and being the Sun the source of their power and the Sun God their patron deity, this this is certainly an important date in their religious calendar. During the day they pray the obligatory three times a day, and at night they light the temples and prayer towers with thousands of torches and lanterns. Fireworks are set off from the top of the towers, and in the houses and tents in the desert, people eat a lot of food, especially watermelons and pomegranates. It is also a tradition to feed chocolate chip biscuits to the Ilidari in the house. Later in the night, children and adults go to the main squares of the cities to watch plays, concerts, jugglers and fakirs .

Finally, for the dark elves, as has been said, the winter solstice is the longest night of the year, and they celebrate it as the triumph of darkness over light, the light of the gods that so disappointed and betrayed them in the past. It is traditional in dark elven communities to make blood sacrifices at sundown, usually sacrificing cows, goats, wild animals, or even prisoners of war. In the case of animal sacrifice, the meat is distributed among the family and a common meal is held.