Holidays

The First Hunt/Premunari
In ancient times, the festival involved hunting, but in the modern form of observance, it is a day of picnics, outdoor games, and frolicking that has little to do with Nylea as it originally did, except that it celebrates the full flowering of spring. Tales tell of Nylea being passingly bitter about the celebration and, annually, visiting a First Hunt celebration in disguise. If she finds herself duly honored during the revelry, she blesses the event and might personally participate. If she finds no mention of her works, she curses those in attendance, sometimes sending rampaging beasts to disrupt the event or turning participants into game animals for true hunters to stalk.

The Megasphagion
A domesticated version of Mogis' typical rites. It involves the sacrifice of many cattle to avert Mogis' wrath. The meat is then cooked and distributed among all who attend the festival. The grand feast that follows tends to devolve into a drunken revel. In some tales, individuals or communities with long-held grudges find themselves incensed during the festival, leading them to seek violent ends to their rivalries.

Libertas
The city-state of Horizon was once part of The Daybreak Empire, who ruled his territory with absolute cruelty. Ephara bestowed her magic on the subjugated populace to enable them to fight back and overthrow their oppressors. The newly freed people then established Horizon, as the settlement on that site is known today. The founding of Ephara's favored city is still celebrated today, both in Horizon and elsewhere among the god's followers.

Summer solstice
The largest holiday aligned with Heliod, celebrated with three days of ceremonious feasting, weddings, and oaths of loyalty.

The Kindling/Forge-Lighting
In Orbis' earliest days, the people vociferously honored Heliod, Nylea, and Thassa for the comforts of nature. Gradually, Purphoros grew bitter that mortals never acknowledged his flames, which kept the earth warm and fertile. So, Purphoros quenched the world's core. For a year, a lifeless winter gripped the world, with neither the sun nor the seasons warming the corpse-chill earth. Ultimately, it was the mortal engineer Prome who brought about the winter's end. Instead of cursing the situation. Prome sought a solution, creating a hypocaust system to bring warmth to her community. Delighted with the innovation, Purphoros waited until Prome completed and lit her substructure furnace. When she did, the god returned warmth to the entire world. A festival is held to commemorate the event, during this festival, worshipers keep a bonfire burning from sundown to sunrise, acknowledging that Purphoros warms the earth and makes the harvest possible.

The Blessing of the Beasts
This festival celebrates humans' partnership with domestic animals. The horses and oxen that pull plows, the cats that guard the granaries, and the roosters that wake families and call them to their work are given blessings, special treats, and a day of rest. Stories say that strays found on this day are servants of Karametra and destined for great things. Others claim that on this day domestic animals can speak, that is, if they have anything they care to say to their supposed owners.

The Cheimazon
During the first week of the eleventh month, Orbis observes Pharika's winter festival. The sick and infirm sleep in the goddess' temples during this festival in hopes of receiving a miraculous cure, and the truly devout imbibe near-lethal doses of poison, trusting Pharika to oversee their recovery. In some tales, a cobra with rainbow scales appears in Pharika's temple and bites some incurable soul. The envenomed victim pitches and babbles for three days, but their disjointed words prove to be a font of alchemical truths, sometimes bearing the secrets to healing others around them. In most of these myths, the victim expires at the end of these three days, Pharika's price for sharing her secrets, but in some, the patient recovers, there-after exhibiting remarkable resistance to illness and poisons.