Andal Festivities

The Faith of the Seven celebrates, each year several holy days: one for each aspect of their god, together with a Sept Day twice every fortnight.

Those days are occasions for praying, creating ties with one’s community and feeling closer to the Seven. The Seven Holy Days are spread rather evenly throughout the year.

## Father's Day

The Day of the Father falls on the 28th day of the second month. It’s a day of celebration of fatherhood and lordship. Fathers, Lords, Masters and, most of all, Kings are praised and blessed by the officiating Septon during the day’s Service and, later, it’s commonplace for Lords to hold a gathering at their holdfast, and for the King to parade from the Sept to the Keep, amongst the cheering of the Smallfolk, blessing the father of the Realm. The day of justice and rightfulness, it’s a time to settle disputes and hold weddings, baptisms or even funerals. It’s the day of family and kinship.

## The Mother's Festival

the Festival of the Mother takes place from the second Sept day of the seventh month for a whole sennight. It is generally a time for peace and harmony, for mercy and kindness and perhaps the most important of those holy days: a terrible time to take someone’s life, and a wonderful time to make peace with your enemies.

Mothers are treated with more respect and reverence than usual and it’s the custom to salute a woman with “The mother blesses you.”. A baby born on one of these seven days, according to the smallfolk, is especially blessed, and, if the first, he will be the first of many. Sermons are held daily in every Sept, and many confess their sins to the Mother above, asking for forgiveness.

Highborns and the Smallfolk alike rejoice, and feasts and fairs are held throughout the South. The seven days fall from the 14th to the 21st day, and, on the night with the fullest moon, the celebrations continue all the way to dawn.

## Warrior's Day

On Warrior’s day, veterans, squires, soldiers and knights alike are blessed by the septon during the Service. If a Knight feels he went against his vows he can ask to be re-anointed on this day. It’s the perfect day to tell a page he’s earned the rank of squire, and even more so to make your squire a true knight under the light of the seven. Tourneys and military parades are organised by local Septs as Septons praise courage, valour and strength in their speeches. It falls on the 28th day of the tenth month.

## Maiden's Day

As the name says, it’s a holy day dedicated to maidens: maids are granted access to the Sept, where they sing songs of purity and innocence, light white candles, and adorn the Statue of the maiden with garlands, all dressed in white. Girls who have not yet bled, mothers, deflowered women, and men are banned from the temple for a whole day and night, as the girls stand vigil in the temple, singing.

The holy day takes place on the last day of Waning of the 5th month, the from the dawn of the 14th day to the following one.

## Crone's Day

This holy day is one of the less characteristic. The faithful reunite in the Sept, where the Septon praises Wisdom. The Elderly are celebrated and seated in the first rows during the celebration, and are blessed by the Septon after the service. Family banquets may be held.

## Smith's Day

Smith’s Day falls on the closest Sept Day to Wheat Harvest, a day of rest from work, when people gather their strength and pray the Smith to ease their toil. It would be particularly felt in the country, while, in the Cities, it would seem a Sept Day like any other, if not with sermons praising the effect of work on the spirit, and more people taking a day off from their work. Its proximity to harvest feasts, however, make it a less important celebration. It’s not be commonplace for lavish feasts or festivals to be held on this Smith’s Day: it’s a day for rest and meditation.

## Remembrance Day (Day of the Stranger)

The Highborn set colourful and luxurious clothes aside, dressing in grey, black or brown, and head to the Sept, where the Septons speak of death, peace, memory and remembrance, blessing the souls of the dearly departed. The worshipper then usually head to graveyards together, visiting their ancestors’ tombs. Children born on remembrance day are said to live a hundred years by some, and to be a bad omen by others. People who die on the Day of the Stranger, instead, are said to be blessed and forgiven of all their sins.