Leapinsday

Leapinsday, or Leapins Day, or Leaping Day, is the first Day of Steam after Childenstide. It is holiday and folk tradition celebrated in the Freehold of Sawdus. The festival is traditionally seen as being a celebration of new life and the coming of the spring, but in more modern times it seen mostly as an occasion for rural folk to get drunk out of their minds.
The day is associated with a multitude of traditions. One of the most famous is the famous Leapers' Dance, in which the population of a village must dance around a traditional dance around the perimeter of their village, adorned with flowers. Although the dance is practiced in many of the towns and villages of Sawdus, the most famous is perhaps the one practiced in West Haven, which also involves swimming.
The day is also a day in which the women of the village may present 'poppins' - a form of straw doll usually made to resemble a gentleman or soldier - to their beloved, as an expression of their love and their hope for the future. Although the poppin may be seen as a quaint tradition, there is a long-standing tradition of passive-aggressiveness which accompanies it.
Leapinsday has often been claimed [by whom?] to predate the Pemblicisation of the western coast, however no corresponding Prydowan celebration, ancient or otherwise has been found.
Category:Folklore
Category:Festivals