Great Spear Festival

The Great Spear Festival

To commemorate the slaying of the legendary mountain giant Bornaglaud, by impaling him on his own tree-length spear, the Rain Clans set aside an entire week for celebration, culminating in the construction of a massive, nearly half-mile long lance of pine, and the subsequent Great Spear Run, during which fifty of the strongest and heartiest villagers will take up the impossibly long and heavy weapon, and begin the traditional run-across-villages, until at last they reach the Puddle, the shallow lake on the eastern border of their kingdom, beyond which dwell the children of the mists and fog, ogre-witches, giants and the Wisz-Zool, the dwarves of the Opossum Tribes.

At this point the villagers will brandish and shake the spear, while hollering and whooping, spearhead pointing across the waters of the Puddle, as a symbolic warning to the creatures on the far, misty shore. A defiant gesture, announcing the Rain Clan's pride, determination, and fearlessness in the face of their ancestral enemies.

After the Great Spear Run and the festive parade of villagers who follow the spear-runners, return, the giant spear is taken apart once more, each segmented pine-staff thrown into a growing bon-fire, the spear in effect, now warming the villagers by night, as songs are sung by the rain clans finest voices, commemorating the death of the giant Bornegault, at the hands of their ancestors.

During this week, foodstuffs cooked for the festival will be overlarge to mimic the spear. Farmer swill bring forth their largest gourds, breads and cakes will be baked to epic scale, and only the largest lake-pikes will be slow-smoked on stilts.

The festival will end when the rains begin, and extinguish the Bonfire of Spears. And the rains always begin on schedule. Or these folk would not be the Rain Clans called.