Evale

The festival of **Evale** is seemingly local to the city of Dharnam, and is 'a celebration of roses and Baba Yaga, of darkness and shadows and mourning, of death and new life.'

## Appears in

Major Canon:

*The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague*

## Details

‘Blue roses are sacred to Baba Yaga', which seems to be why celebrants wear them and put up artwork of blue roses around the city and during the festival in particular. In preparation for the festival, shopkeepers put 'blue roses made of fabric or crystal up on their counters.' While Gwyn ap Nudd's group was in town, and as the festival drew nearer, 'Dharnam filled with blue roses – none of them real – some made of paper, crumpling in the snow. Chalk drawings appeared on the black stone paths. Some people hung paintings or woven roses under their porches, and one person in one of the poorer districts painted blue roses across the walls of their house. . . . They [also] put art and sculptures of blue roses in front of their houses and work buildings'.

The festival has many rituals: 'First the roses. Then people burn what they no longer need, they surrender it to the fire.' The whole city fills with the smell of smoke, because of all the fires from chimneys and bonfires. After the fire-sending, celebrants 'visit each other and give gifts', Celebrants 'ask for blessings from Baba Yaga, that she sends off what [they] no longer need, that she keeps [them] safe the way she keeps her blue roses safe. It’s always a risk with Baba Yaga', because she's a goddess of death.

Yborza noted, ‘There is a mourning ritual at the very end . . . We make a very big bonfire in the middle of the city, near the city-forest. It goes all night.' The bonfire itself, at least when Gwyn's group of there, began as 'an unlit pile of wood and some refuse, and several giant straw figures: a pelican, a goose, a cat, a skull, and what could have been a rose, but was hard to tell since it was shaped clumsily in straw.'

At least during the festival Gwyn and his party attended, Gwyn wore the Unseelie crown and gave a speech to the city before the bonfire was lit, and Eran Iliakambar used blue flames to light the bonfire, and sang songs from the desert. Eran was later joined by other desert fae. Afterward, Gwyn led the other celebrants in song.

Eran noted that the roses not being real (as blue roses do not appear to occur naturally in the fae realm) is 'part of the story that they don’t have the real thing, . . . It is said Baba Yaga will grant the wish of anyone who has a blue rose, or maybe that she will answer any question, but that the answer or wish might be cursed, so you get everything you want and nothing you want all at once. The blue roses everywhere are like…the hopes of the people. They hope their wishes will be answered, but they know to be careful of what they wish. It is a reminder to be grateful for what you have, to not just want miracles.’

During or near the festival, many celebrants go outside to sing to each other. 'Some sang in giant groups, and others were on their own, serenading a child or an elderly family member. The songs were different, but they were all about wishes. Some songs had the clear feel of being ancient melodies that had been sung for thousands of years, and others were clearly invented, like the father who sang to his little girl that he wished she would sleep through one night – just one night – and it would make him so very happy.' A professional choir in Dharnam encircles seemingly random fae near/during the festival and sings to the fae, wishing them 'the best of Dharnam', the best from the fae's friends and loved ones, Baba Yaga's blessing, and love.

Yborza noted that Baba Yaga likes that it is an inter-alignment festival, and it was like a portent that Gwyn, who also knew Baba Yaga, was in Dharnam during Evale.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 12 May 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/97400118. Chapter 32: Our Better Natures.
2. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 17 February 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/92776732. Chapter 26: It's Love.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 26 May 2022.https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/98170593. Chapter 33: Soul Crying.
4. ↑ not\_poignant. “The Ice Plague: Book 3 - The Ice Plague.” *The Fae Tales Verse. Archive of Our Own,* 12 May 2022. https://archiveofourown.org/works/26266345/chapters/97400118. Chapter 32: Our Better Natures.