Celebrations

The means by which the Bloodmoon divide the year and understand time revolves around the Goddess’s Circle, an annual cycle of seasonal festivals that align with the year’s chief solstices and equinoxes and their midpoints. Based heavily in folk traditions that they carried with them on the journey from Meracydia, there are eight major holidays they celebrate as the year passes.

## Grand Moot

A midwinter celebration. Hosted at the year’s end, this festival culminates on the longest and darkest night of the year, the Bloodmoon reflect upon the final turn of the wheel before the cycle begins anew. Taking advantage of the winter chill, the clan prepares an end-of-year feast to last throughout the night’s hours from the mindful foraging, farming and hunting they have done throughout the year and makes sacrificial offerings to the Goddess to thank her for continuing to weave the tapestry of time. The giving of gifts and declarations of achievement are commonplace, with the most hallowed of Ekhinu armaments - often forged in moon-blessed silver - reserved for those who have risen above and beyond the call of duty.

## Saint Vhela’s Day

A early spring celebration. The Bloodmoon refer to the day long holiday of the season’s change as the natural shift in phase that separates the Maiden and the Mother and emphasize the holiday as the natural course of change in season and in life. Saint Vhela was the first huntress to give birth to the clan’s new generation of children upon arrival in the Thornsnarl, and was said to have been blessed by the Goddess with many kills, many lovers and many more children, and much of the clan’s huntresses aspire to be like her in some way. The festivities pay particular focus and tribute to the four kinds of love, seeking the approval of the Goddess so that they might be blessed in similar manner. It is identified as a time of new beginnings and life emerging and culminates in a friendly clan-wide hunt of the male members of the clan by their female counterparts.

## Wanderer’s Festival

A midspring celebration. Meant to honor the masculine spirit of Oschon that occupies the men and boys of their clan, the Wanderer’s Festival is both a coming of age ceremony for young men that marks their departure from the clan and a welcome home to those who wish to return. In a role reversal, the men of the tribe are served and pampered by their female companions, who bring them welcome and farewell gifts to mark the occasion and rekindle their bond. This is also the day where those men who would like to be 'kept' and stay within the territory proper are accepted formally as members of the clan and are adopted into the respective line that they desire to be a part of. Unlike any of the other festivals, the Wanderer’s Festival occurs entirely during the day cycle, aligning Oschon alongside Azeyma as Menphina’s opposing half.

## Hunter’s March

A early summer celebration. Devoted entirely to Dalamud, this holiday is often the most popular among children and a day of remembrance, restitution and ritual, performing rites that beseech the fallen hound for her guidance and guardianship and a clear path forward. Sacrifice of animals and offerings of long ropes of flowers to lay at the Goddess’s feet are a favorite devotion of these adherents, along with grand performances of musical myths that described Dalamud’s greatest achievements. The clan's wolfhounds - often bound to the beastmaster at whose behest they serve - are raced through the Thornsnarl's tangles down a path lit by bright bonfires to guide the hound’s way through the wood as he returns back to his mistress. Despite the disgrace that some may attribute to Dalamud, Hunter’s March is still in common practice, preserving night long dancing, worship and merriment.

## Moonfall

A midsummer celebration. Following closely on the heels of Hunter’s March, Moonfall is a somber affair for the superstitious and suspicious Bloodmoon, who seek to honor their ice-aspected Goddess when she is at her weakest in an attempt to bolster her strength. Marked by somber ceremony and serious affairs, many believe this is the time that Menphina is at her most mortal, weaving great protectors uniquely taken from the Menagerie from plant life and bone to send to her side, as they all remember Dalamud cannot be. These great beasts are burned at the end of the night’s feast, slipping skyward as smoke to hang with the Goddess in her heavens. Many of the clan spend their entire day in prayer, choosing to forego food and drink and instead leaving their full bowls at the feet of the Divine Mother in the hopes that what they provide will fill her with strength.

## Feast of Famine

An early autumn celebration. Curiously named, the Feast of Famine recalls the earliest days of Meracydia’s starving vagrants who had migrated far from home in search of new territory. Presented with unique athletic challenges, the Feast of Famine exemplifies kinship among the clan and encourages them to test their mettle against their fellows before the night’s culmination in a grand feast. The challenges - that of the mind, the body and the heart - are uniquely demanding and reminiscent of the first trials that any blooded kin of the clan first take, but are rooted in the benefit of learning new lessons, resolving minor disputes and reforging friendships. Meant to remind the clan that they are as rich in bounty as they are in brotherhood, this is nonetheless the season where the competition truly shines. Handfasting ceremonies between monogamous pairs are occasionally permitted this day.

## Red Harvest

A mid autumn celebration. Once heretics in the eyes of the elements, the Bloodmoon have reformed as a deeply spiritual people that prizes harmony between the self and the natural world. Ever since the Purge, the near extinction event brought on by greenwrath, they have made it a practice to realign themselves with the elemental forces still at play within the Shroud. Regarded as a holy day, the Harvest is a major curative for those who have found themselves ill-balanced, giving them the opportunity to make amends by performing services to the elementals provided by the clan’s hearers. Though not a formal harvest, the Bloodmoon coined the term because they believe each member of the clan will reap what they sow when the time comes.

## Night of the Veiled Maiden

A early winter celebration. Menphina nears the time of year at which she is the most powerful, and the clan feels her presence keenly as the days grow darker. More importantly do they sense the incursion of their departed brothers and sisters into the living world as she parts her veil, bringing the plane of immortal and mortal alike in alignment. The souls of the dead return to their home seeking hospitality, and for every place a huntress takes, so too does she prepare one more for those who have departed so they might eat at the same table. Making offerings of rich foods, entertainment and colorful dress, the Bloodmoon pay heed to Menphina’s blessings to ensure the lost are remembered and the living survive the winter.