Waterdhavian Festivals

STOPPED @ LOVIATAR

Daily

• Sunrise Service: Lathander. Welcoming rites to Lathander as the day begins.
• Twilight Service: Lathander. Solemn rites asking Lathander to watch over his faithful as the night comes.
• The Lady's Appeasement: Leira. A daily opportunity to offer sacrifices to Leira, praying that she avert her caprices, and bless those who engage in deceit or who attempt to see through deceit.
• Sunset Prayers: Mask. Rites in which worshipers kneel before altar to Mask. Worshipers offer coins to low-ranking clergy, low-ranking clergy offer them to high-ranking clergy, and the high priest offers a single coin to the most destitute of worshipers present.
• The Dusking: Myrkul. A rite to remind mortals how closely death walks, involving a floating skull onto which were sprinkled pinches of cremains and grave dirt, with each sacrifice marked by the tolling of a funereal bell.
• The Binding: Oghma. One of the "Cornerstones of the Day," the Binding is a morning service in which the symbols of Oghma are written in the dirt, in ashes upon the altar, or on any other medium, which prayers are intoned.
• The Covenant: Oghma. The second "Cornerstone of the Day" of the Oghman faith, this is an evening service in which passages of some work of wisdom are read aloud or recited from memory, a song or poem is offered up to Oghma, and then some item of knowledge that clergy or laity have learned that day is offered up aloud for the benefit of all present.
• Nightfall: Shar. A nightly ritual as the sun sets, involving an invocation, a dance, a charge or series of inspiring instructions, and a revel. Lay worshipers are expected to attend at least one Nightfall rite per tenday. On moonless nights, this rite is called the Coming of the Lady, and every congregation must carry out some significant act of vengeance or wickedness in the Dark Lady's name.
• Song of the Sword: Tempus. A rousing holy battle chant performed just after dark in temples, invoking Tempus' strength of arms through the night and unto the following day.

Tendaily

• Feast of Love: Sune. Intimate gatherings of the faithful in which they recline on cushions and couches, eating bitelets and sipping liquers, while enjoying solitary dancers interspersed with readers of poetry and romantic prose. Such gatherings always break up into more private groups afterwards.

Monthly

• The Foreshadowing (New Moon): Ibraundul. On cloud-covered nights of the new moon, worshippers of the dark Ibrandul emerge from their subterranean lairs to perform a rite which begins at midnight and promises to fulfill Ibrandul's promise to eventually envelop the Lands Above in utter darkness.
• Full Moon Revel: Selune. Open-air dances and prayers under the moonlight with sacrifices of milk poured out upon the altar.
• New Moon Revel: Selune. Open-air dances and prayers under the moonlight with sacrifices of wine poured out upon the altar.
• Grand Revel (Full Moon): Sune. A dusk-to-dawn party in which outsiders are invited, dancing and minstrelsry dominate and those of the faith seek converts with fun and an exhibition of the temple's beautiful or art objects.
• Seeing Justice (1st Day of Month): Tyr. Chanted prayers and thunderous hymns under the image of a gigantic warhammer that glows white.
• The Maiming (13th Day of Month): Tyr. Chanted prayers and thunderous hymns under the image of a hand surrounded by a nimbus of burning blood, and then tumbles away into darkness.
• The Blinding (22nd Day of Month): Tyr. Chanted prayers and thunderous hymns under the image of two eyes that burst into fountains of flaming tears until they have entirely spilled away. Afterwards, symbolic blindfolds of diaphanous damask are bound over the eyes of worshippers to remind them of Tyr's blindness.

Other

• Daernuth: Talona. Public festivals held every twelve days, open to nondevotees where visitors are encouraged to pray and giver offerings to Talona to spare themselves or loved ones from death, disease, and the like. The clergy with the ability to do so make a point of healing lepers and other victims of disfiguring diseases. Minor priests sell poisons (for eliminating vermin, of course), antidotes, and medicines, while senior clergy diagnose conditions and prescribe treatments for still fees.

Month of Hammer

• Cold Counting Comfort (Hammer 15th): Waukeen. A sacred time to tend to accounting and inventory duties.

Midwinter (Festival)

Midwinter is known officially as the High Festival of Winter. It is a feast where, traditionally, the lords of the land plan the year ahead, make and renew alliances, and send gifts of goodwill. To the commonfolk, this is Deadwinter Day, the midpoint of the worst of the cold.

• Deliverance Unto Darkness: Ibrandul. Held on Midwinter's Eve, this ritual typically involves the sacrifice of a monstrous spider or some other creature or being intimately associated with Lolth. It culminates in the casting of strange spells that allow them to wander through the Underdark without light.
• The Longest Dance: Auril. The holiest night of the year to Aurilites, it is spent with a festival of ice-dancing the whole night through. It is a raucous and enjoyable festival, in which the faithful are supposed to enjoy themselves, and invite others to join them for the fun (and possible proselytizing).
• Midwinter Gathering: Grumbar. The church holds a festival celebrating the completion of another year in the eternal church of Grumbar. During this festival, church leaders and elders gather to plan the faith's activities during the upcoming year. These plans, once set, are never varied from during the year and can only be changed at the next Midwinter Gathering.

Month of Alturiak

• Great Weave (Alturiak 20th): Waukeen. A celebration of cloth-making and weaving, with cloth woven during this month believed to be truly blessed. The Most Excellent Order of Weavers & Dyers and the Order of Master Taylors, Glovers & Mercers consider this a very important festival.

Month of Ches

• The First Tide (When Ice in Harbor breaks): Umberlee. Flute-and-drum parade through the streets by the clergy and faithful, celebrating the breaking of the ice. An animal sacrifice is taken down to the harbor, tied to a large stone and thrown into the water. If it washes back ashore, it is rescued and nurtured back to health, and tended as a sacred animal.
• Song of Dawn (Ches 19th; Spring Equinox): Lathander. Praise-song that blends purely vocal harmonies and counter-harmonies of incredible complexity. Can be heard for blocks around echoing through the Spires of Morning.
• First Feast (Ches 19th; Spring Equinox): Mielikki. Holy rituals and revels where the faithful of Mielikki are expected to enjoy the sensual pleasures of life and sing praises to the Lady in the forest.
• The Rite of Pain & Purity (Ches 19th; Spring Equinos): Loviatar. Rite in which clergy chant and dance on barbed wire, thorns, or broken glass, with senior clergy urging them on with whips and lay worshippers chanting and drumming. This sometimes causes a red mistlike radiance to rise from the dancing floor, and for the dancing clergy to receive messages from the Painmaiden.
• Fleetswake (Ches 21st - 30th): Civic. Spanning the last tenday in Ches, Fleetswake is a mariners' festival celebrating the sea, the sea trades that are their livelihood, and the gods of the sea. While much of the religious seriousness and ceremony is placed on the Fair Seas Festival (see above), many of the Fleetswake events and activities are dedicated in small ways to nearly every sea god or goddess of the Realms. The bulk of the festival activity occurs in Dock Ward, though the Fiery Flagon in Sea Ward is a hotbed of action during this holiday as well. Among the many events of the Fleetswake festival are boat races (both private boats and the rakers of the city naval guard), the annual Shipwrights' Ball at the Shipwrights' House, guild-sponsored galas at the Copper Cup festhall, and many more. Any ships entering the harbor during Fleetswake are not charged the standard docking fees for their stay but the ships' captains are expected to donate at least 1 gold piece per day to Umberlee’s Cache before they leave Waterdeep's harbor.
• Fair Seas Festival (Ches 29th - 30th): Civic, Umberlee. This festival spans two days in late Ches, and closes the annual Fleetswake festivities.
  • The first day involves much feasting in all corners of the city, but the menus are limited primarily to seafood; in lower Castle Ward, a number of temporary structures are built over the waters off Smugglers’ Dock, allowing a number of individuals (notably Mirt and Piergeiron and city guard officers) and nobles involved in the sea trades to host a feast shared with the mermen and sea elves of Waterdeep's harbor. The docks and Deepwater Isle are heavily staffed by clergy from all the temples of the city' as well as the heads and members of sea-related guilds' throughout the second day, everyone spending the time in prayer and feasting. At both dawn and sunset, the waters of Waterdeep's harbor are covered with floating flowers in homage to Umberlee, the chaotic ocean goddess.
  • During the course of the festival's two days, parties of city guardsmen and chosen members of the Guild of Watermen and the Master Mariners' Guild tour the city, taking donations from tavern patrons for Umberlee's Cache (there are also collection boxes at the two guildhalls), a sacrifice of coins from the citizens of the city to Umberlee in thanks for safe ports and safe passage in the coming year. Upon sunset of the second day, the money is placed in chests and dumped into the deepest part of the harbor. This festival has existed in a number of forms since the first trade-meets occurred here, and over 2,500,000 gold pieces have been dumped into the harbor and remain relatively inviolate; the area is closely guarded by the undersea guardsmen, whose standing orders are to kill anyone disturbing Umberlee's Cache. There are also rumors of magical protections on the chests which keep them safe. Legends tell of thieves that stole some of the collection years ago and left the city; as soon as their ship left the harbor, a squall sprang up and a huge wave shaped like a hand swept over the ship, taking the thieves overboard and sparing the ship and the rest of the crew.
• Highcoin (Ches 30th): Waukeen. A grand feast with spoken accolades, accompanied by trumpet fanfares, hailing the wealthy for amassing such worth. Offerings are amassed for the next festival, Spheres.

Month of Tarsakh

• Firstflow (when the local ice breaks): Eldath. A small ritual of thanks and welcome to the goddess is held on the day that the ice breaks in rivers and harbors in local communities.
• Waukeentide (Tarsakh 1st - 10th): Civic, Waukeen. This centuries-old tenday festival in early Tarsakh maintains its old title by force of habit. Originally a simple day-long celebration of the free trade and open commerce of the city, it has encompassed a number of older holidays under one title and stretched the holiday season over ten days. Among its rituals are:
  • All Coins Day (Tarsakh 1st): The first night of the festival, usually only really celebrated by merchants and those direct worshippers of Waukeen, by holding massive sales in their shops and donating all of those coins in Waukeen's name to charities and to promising journeymen looking to start their own businesses.
  • Caravance (Tarsakh 2nd): a gift-giving holiday commemorating the traditional arrival of the first caravans of the season into the city, and many parents still hide gifts in their homes, telling their children that Old Carvas left them (Old Carvas is the mythical old peddler who arrived with the first caravan into Waterdeep, his wagon loaded down with toys for all the children in Waterdeep);
  • Goldenight (Tarsakh 5th): a simple festival night celebrating money and gold (many hard currency girls and not a few young noblewomen cover themselves in gold dust and little else on Goldenight), with many businesses operating all night, offering midnight sales and other promotions;
  • Guildsmeet (Tarsakh 7th): special guild member holiday gatherings of the guild memberships for celebrations typically culminating in a multiguild sponsored gala festival and dance that lasts from dusk till dawn and dominates the Market, the Cynosure, the Field of Triumph, and all areas in between.
  • Leiruin (Tarsakh 8th): Waukeen caught Leira, the former goddess of deception, attempting to cheat her in a deal, and buried her under a mountain of molten gold as punishment for cheating an honest merchant; as a commemoration of this, Leiruin is the day for guild members to pay their annual dues to the guilds, for the guildmasters to all meet with the Lord’s Court and renew the guild charters for another year, and for the Lords to bring to light any wrongdoing done in commerce; those charged with theft, robbery, or other commercial crimes on this day are pilloried in front of the Palace and guild members throw coppers at them as part of their punishment (the money goes to the city).
  • Spheres (Tarsakh 10th): Glass spheres are filled with gems and gold to be paraded around the city. They are then loaded into catapult-like contraptions to be lobbed into the air to shatter and spill their contents over the city for the general populace.

Greengrass (Festival)

Greengrass is the official beginning of spring, a day of relaxation. Flowers that have been carefully grown in inner rooms of the keeps and temples during the winter are blessed and cast out upon the snow, to bring rich growth in the season ahead.

• The Lady's Revels: Chauntea. Celebrated as a festival of fertility, where uninhibited behavior and consumption of food and drink is encouraged. Most such celebrations take place in fields outside the city proper, though many of the faithful travel to the major Chauntean abbey of the Goldenfields.
• The Greening: Eldath. A time of gathering for the clergy of Eldath, the Greening often features a progression through a community, stopping to bless local wells, springs, rivers and other sources of water for a community.
• The Wild Ride: Mielikki. The Lady causes herds of unicorns to gather in forests and permit the faithful to ride them bareback on wild tears through the forest through the night. The unicorns are empowered to use their teleport powers at unlimited use and triple range, allowing them to travel great distances.
• The Call to the Flowers: Milil. A song sung by the faithful, who gather in solemn procession, singing the song that returns "nature's music" (a metaphor for flowers) to the world.
• Sunite Revels: Sune. Sunites celebrate Greengrass with frolicking in the outdoors.

Month of Mirtul

• Sammardach (Mirtul 12th): Waukeen. A festival celebrating a rich benefactor of the early church of Waukeen.

Month of Kythorn

• Trolltide (Kythorn 1st): Civic. Begun as a feasting day to celebrate the ending of the decade-long Second Trollwar, Trolltide is now a lesser holiday to the city at the start of Kythorn. Where once everyone was relieved of responsibilities beyond celebrating the freedom and survival of the city, now this holiday is almost exclusively for children. In recognition of how close the enemy came to the city, children now run through the streets in packs from highsun till dusk, pounding on the doors of shops and homes, growling and snarling like trolls; the occupants are expected to give the children candies, fruits, or other small items "to keep the trolls away from my door," and those who do not are generally subject to pranks upon sundown.
• Second Feast (Kythorn 20th; Summer Solstice): Mielikki. Holy rituals and revels where the faithful of Mielikki are expected to enjoy the sensual pleasures of life and sing praises to the Lady in the forest.
• The Rite of Pain & Purity (Kythorn 20th; Summer Solstice): Loviatar. Rite in which clergy chant and dance on barbed wire, thorns, or broken glass, with senior clergy urging them on with whips and lay worshippers chanting and drumming. This sometimes causes a red mistlike radiance to rise from the dancing floor, and for the dancing clergy to receive messages from the Painmaiden.
• Brightbuckle (Kythorn 21st): Waukeen. A parade of the faithful around the city, inviting everyone to don their best and join the parade, which ends at a space with a massive feast, where inspirational talks and reminders of the growing prosperity of the land are given, along with illusions showing the recent works of Waukeen. Those not of the faith are welcome, but likely to be targeted with conversion attempts.

Month of Flamerule

• Founders' Day (Flamerule 1st): Civic. Not really a practiced holiday, Founders’ Day is noted on city calendars as the first day of Flamerule and commemorates the Free City of Waterdeep’s founding. The Field of Triumph is the site of illusory shows of the history of the city as well as martial exhibitions by the guard and other noted warriors of the city. Many festhalls sponsor Founders’ Day costume contests with prizes going to the best costumes of historical personages (from Warlord Raurlor to Khelben the Elder and others). Major illusions used to be established throughout Waterdeep, including making Castle Waterdeep look like the old log structure of Nimoar’s Hold, but these were decried as too disruptive to traffic and commerce and have not been part of the Founders’ Day celebrations for decades.
• Sornyn (Flamerule 3rd - 5th): Waukeen. A time for planning, the making of treaties and agreements and receiving of envoys from unknown lands. Much wine is traditionally consumed during this time, when "my enemy is like a brother to me".

Midsummer (Festival)

Midsummer, called Midsummer Night or the Long Night, is a time of feasting and music and love. In a ceremony performed in some lands, unwed maidens are set free in the woods and “hunted” by their would-be suitors throughout the night. Betrothals are traditionally made upon this night. It is very rare indeed for the weather to be bad during the night—such is considered a very bad omen, usually thought to foretell famine or plague.

• Heroes' Chant: Akadi. Those of the faithful who are able to do so travel to the Shaar, to be in the ruins of Blaskaltar, the first known shrine of Akadi. There, they chant the names of the heroes of the faith and add more such names when it is needful. Those who cannot do so often attend local shrines or outdoor sites where the clergy of Akadi (or a leader among the lay worshippers) perform a local version of the chant.
• Misfortune's Revel: Beshaba. Devotees of the Maid of Misfortune spend this day (and Shieldmeet as well, on years when it occurs) running in wild revels of destruction and rudeness to mark their goddess' nature. The faithful form small posses of (frequently masked) revelers who run wild through the streets of Waterdeep. It is not uncommon for those who don't truly worship the goddess, but simply enjoy the riotous worship to join in. This is fine with the faithful, as it simply adds to their goddess' power. Midsummer nights, the Watch are always careful to watch masked groups carefully, particularly if they display the holy symbol of Beshaba.
• Song of Dawn: Lathander. Praise-song that blends purely vocal harmonies and counter-harmonies of incredible complexity. Can be heard for blocks around echoing through the Spires of Morning.
• The Wild Ride: Mielikki. The Lady causes herds of unicorns to gather in forests and permit the faithful to ride them bareback on wild tears through the forest through the night. The unicorns are empowered to use their teleport powers at unlimited use and triple range, allowing them to travel great distances. On days where Shieldmeet follows Midsummer, the Wild Ride may continue through that day.
• The Grand Revel: Milil. A grand festival involving a feast, dancing, singing, and very boisterous celebration of all music - including the singing of parodies of well-known favorites, and the introduction of entirely new music.
• Midsummer Night: Sune. Sunite temples organize all-night revels that feature flirtatious chases through forests and parks.
• Luckfeast: Tymora. A long night of free-wheeling revelry, filled with mischief and romantic trysts.

Shieldmeet (Once every 4 years)

This day is part of no month, and follows Midsummer Night. It is known as the Shieldmeet. It is a day of open council between nobles and people; a day for the making and renewing of pacts, oaths, and agreements; tournaments, tests and trials for those wishing to advance in battle fame or clerical standing; for entertainment of all types, particularly theatrical; and for dueling.

• Shieldmeet Years: 1348, 1352, 1356, 1360, 1364, 1368, 1372 DR.
• Ceremony of Honor to Helm: Helm. A high holy ritual thanking Helm for his unceasing vigilance.
• The Gilding: Deneir. A high holy day of the Deneiran church, wherein copies of old contracts are taken out for public viewing, and anyone may ask to see a copy of any nonmagical writing in any temple of Deneir to which she or he can travel. Such records and writings must be specifically requested, and must not violate the vows of confidentiality of the temple. This day culminates in the Guilding, in which priests gather in a circle around a levitated manuscript and use special spells only granted on Shieldmeet which impresses the manuscript with golden letters, used to write the Words of Deneir onto the document, which is then displayed for a full tenday afterward before being archived with the previous manuscripts.
• Conjuring of the Second Moon: Selûne. A rite that summons celestial servants of Selûne, who arrive to do good deeds or fight the enemies of the temple. These servants, called Shards, always take one female worshipper, laity or clergy, to become one of them when they depart.

Month of Eleasias

• Divine Pageantry (varies): Siamorphe. A festival that celebrates the nobility who are Siamorphe's main worshippers, in which the nobles dress in ancient high fashion and wander around the Sea and North Wards, tossing silver and copper coins to the commoners and addressing one another in stilted, archaic speech that uses full titles and honorifics. Jestingly referred to as the "Festival of Highnoses" by the locals who aren't noble.
• Ahghairon's Day (1st): Civic. Ahghairon's Day commemorates the life of Ahghairon, the first Open Lord, and is celebrated on the day after Midsummer's Night (the first day of Eleasias) in honor of the Old Mage's birth date. Citizens often leave violets (Ahghairon's favorite flower) at the base of his old tower, the Plinth, or on the altars in the House of Wonder, Mystra's temple where he worshiped. While not a practice before Lhestyn's lifetime, Lhestyn's tradition of visiting taverns and inns throughout the city to wish the people well is continued by Piergeiron, the current Open Lord and most visible agent of Ahghairon's rule. While not a holiday that affects the city's operation (aside from closing the Lord's Court), it is honored in small ways, with many toasts to the Lords of the city in tavern talk, and bards performing some of the locally written songs in honor of the much-loved Old Mage.
• Birth of the Eternal Fire (Eleasias 9th): Kossuth. The igniting of the Kossuthan shrine's Eternal Fire is celebrated on this day, involving a progression of the flame through the streets of Waterdeep, staring at the Plinth, and eventually returning to it. It has become tradition for the owners of buildings to cast one coin for each building they own into the great fire as it passes, praying for protection from fire for that year.
• Huldark (Eleasias 17th): Waukeen. A feast in which the bounty of the land is celebrated, and the faithful of Waukeen plant new trees or gardens.

Month of Eleint

• Spryndalstar (Eleint 7th): Waukeen. A celebration of the enrichment that magic has brought to folk. Mages are invited to speak and demonstrate their talents, and young mages are often sponsored in their endeavors.
• Song of Dawn (Eleint 21st; Autumn Equinox): Lathander. Praise-song that blends purely vocal harmonies and counter-harmonies of incredible complexity. Can be heard for blocks around echoing through the Spires of Morning.
• Third Feast (Eleint 21st; Autumn Equinox): Mielikki. Holy rituals and revels where the faithful of Mielikki are expected to enjoy the sensual pleasures of life and sing praises to the Lady in the forest.
• The Rite of Pain & Purity (Eleint 21st; Autumn Equinox): Loviatar. Rite in which clergy chant and dance on barbed wire, thorns, or broken glass, with senior clergy urging them on with whips and lay worshippers chanting and drumming. This sometimes causes a red mistlike radiance to rise from the dancing floor, and for the dancing clergy to receive messages from the Painmaiden.

High Harvesttide (Festival)

Higharvestide heralds the coming of fall and the harvest. It is a feast that often continues for the length of the harvest, so that there is always food for those coming in from the fields. There is much traveling about on the heels of the feast, as merchants, court emissaries, and pilgrims make speed ere the worst of the mud arrives and the rain freezes in the snow.

• Day of Wonders: Gond. A festival for Gond anticipated each year around Higharvestide for the imaginative inventions of the Gondsmen that are revealed on this day.
• High Prayers of the Harvest: Chauntea. Solemn prayer vigils are held as the harvests are brought in to celebrate the bounty of Chauntea. Though these are held on the last day of the harvest in actual agricultural communities, they are often celebrated in Waterdeep on the day of High Harvesttide proper.
• The Feast of the Stags: Malar. Malarite clergy parade through settled areas bearing the heads of beasts they've killed in the last tenday, and lead all who desire to eat to a feast of those beasts. This is usually a two-day orgy of gluttony, and all folk (even druids!) may attend, protected by the "Peace of the Table." At this feast, the clergy of Malar vow to hunt through the winter to feed chosen widows, aged folk, infirm and orphans.

Month of Marpenoth

• Marthoon (Marpenoth 1st): Waukeen. Recognition of the vigilance and work of soldiers and guards to defend the wealth and security of the folk. Such folk are feasted and given gifts of gold. Each temple sponsors the retirement of one lucky soldier or guard by providing him or her 10 times his or her weight in common coin and a steading to enjoy it on.
• Starfall (Marpenoth 22nd): Tymora. A celebration of new and lucky beginnings, believed to mark the death of the old goddess Tyche, and the birth of Tymora. Clergy who have earned advancements and acclaim receive them this time of year, and all clergy are given new vestments.

Month of Uktar

• Tehennteahan (Uktar 10th): Waukeen. Also called the Night of Hammers and Nails, in which the inventions of simple craftsmen and their work are celebrated. New innovations are demonstrated, shops are shut to allow the craftsmen time to enjoy the festival, and one lucky innovator has the rights to his works purchased for the price of a single room in his dwelling filled with gold.

Feast of the Moon (Festival)

The Feast of the Moon is the last great festival of the year. It marks the arrival of winter, and is also the day when the dead are honored. Graves are blessed, the Ritual of Remembrance performed, and tales of the doing of those now gone are told far into the night. Much is said of heroes and treasure and lost cities underground.

• Recounting of Splendors: Bhaal. A time when the faithful gather to hear the priests recount important or simply impressive tales of murder, and when the faithful remember the murdered of the previous year as worthy sacrifices to Bhaal (no matter who killed them).
• The Day the Dead Are Most With Us: Myrkul. A celebration of the dead in chant, prayer, and hymn, with the midnight Flagons of the Fallen, wherein glasses of wine are set alight by spells so that the spirits who drink of them can be warmed for a few moments in their "eternal chill".
• Rising of the Dark: Shar. A secret ritual in which Sharites gather under cover of other Feast of the Moon celebrations to witness a blood sacrifice and learn of any plots or aims the clergy want them to work toward in the year ahead.
• Praise of the Valorous Dead: Tempus. A great time of solemnity in which the Valorous Dead - a roll of those who have fallen in battle that year - are added to the ever-growing list kept of such by each temple.

Month of Nightal

• Auril's Blesstide (varies): Auril, Civil. Similar to the Fair Seas Festival below, this holiday is celebrated more as a case of prevention rather than true celebration, designed to protect Waterdeep from the ill will of Auril the Frostmaiden, goddess of winter. On no set day, Auril's Blesstide is proclaimed upon the dawn of the first frost, a squad of griffon-riders flying low over the city blowing distinctive horns that proclaim it Auril's Day; on this day, every one in the city wears primarily white clothes and no one eats or serves hot meals, in deference to the goddess of cold. In the past century, a disrespectful lark by some unclothed and besotted young nobles has become a traditional part of the Auril's Day ceremonies; a parade of white-cloaked men and women literally runs from the Cliffwatch in North Ward across the city, through the West Gate and out onto the western beaches. From there, the participants (mostly young nobles or merchants) leap into the icy waters of the Sea of Swords clad only in light white tunics (if clad at all) in order to "gain the respect of Auril and sacrifice our warmth to stay the worst of her icy wrath in the coming winter."
• Fourth Feast (Nightal 20th; Winter Solstice): Mielikki. Holy rituals and revels where the faithful of Mielikki are expected to enjoy the sensual pleasures of life and sing praises to the Lady in the forest.
• The Rite of Pain & Purity (Nightal 20th; Winter Solstice): Loviatar. Rite in which clergy chant and dance on barbed wire, thorns, or broken glass, with senior clergy urging them on with whips and lay worshippers chanting and drumming. This sometimes causes a red mistlike radiance to rise from the dancing floor, and for the dancing clergy to receive messages from the Painmaiden.
• Orbar (Nightal 25th): Waukeen. A remembrance for the dark side of wealth, in which prayers are said for those driven mad by their miserliness, those slain by thieves and brigands, and those who died trying to acquire coin (legally or otherwise). The public is invited to a Candle Feast wherein well-loved deceased merchants are remembered with praise, and the church reminds those in the community that it has the power to trace and hunt down thieves who steal the wealth of those that worship Waukeen - and it will use it.