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Flame Festival, Loretober Day Twenty-Five!

Added 2025-10-25 21:00:08 +0000 UTC

Hearth Mother worshipers celebrate quite a few holidays in Her name, but (arguably) the one most looked forward to is the Flame Festival!

Taking place over the course of thee days with the middle most day being the summer solstice, children of the Mother are meant to replace their hard labor with festivities that include feasting, drinking, courting, playing music, and dancing around a large bonfire lit with the Hearth Mother's flame.
This holiday is first and foremost a fertility festival, celebrating love, children, and fruitful summer harvest throughout the northern kingdom. Trying to conceive children around this time is auspicious, as is getting married, and children born on the summer solstice are said to stay warm through every winter of their lives.

A week before the event, towns throughout the kingdom will be decorated with summer flowers, banners, and lanterns, keeping the main square lit and bright all through the night. Some smaller villages will merge their celebrations in order for youths to meet new potential lovers and will share their food with one another in exchange for lodging during the festival.

Some Flame Festival traditions include:
- Burning notes with descriptions of your ideal love on the first day of the festival in hopes of the Hearth Mother sending someone similar your way.
- Drinking fire cider and eating specially made spicy foods. Mostly done in response to a dare, both are painful to swallow, but show virility if consumed without a negative reaction.
- Dancing around the bonfire. In the middle of every celebrating town is a fire pit that is kept lit for the entirety of the festival. It is said that twin flames are most often found while dancing around this fire.