Omatsuri

Omatsuri is a holiday that takes place on the sevenday of the seventh tenday of Kentgannon throughout Pteris, and is known far and wide across the realm as a summer festival of purification, luck, and good fortune for the coming year. It especially involving adventurers, but it also can involve common folk as well. Many towns will hold festivals to celebrate the occasion, but the backbone of the holiday follows a very simple process:

1. Find someone out on the adventuring road, and present a bottle of water to them. If they present one in return, they accept.
2. Each person will pour some water over their hands to purify them.
3. Each person will then pour some water over the other person's feet to harden the ground beneath them.
4. Each person will then drink the remainder of the water.

ABOUT

Omatsuri first cane into conception in 125 PR, when people were seeking solace from the threat of the demonic invasion. Though it wouldn't gain popularity for another couple years, the appeal of purity allowed it to grow exponentially in the years to come. Though the basis of it is hardly a holiday in its own right, many towns have grown to adopt the traditions and expand on them, creating full summer festivals filled with food stalls, spiritual masks and other regalia, and games for all ages to enjoy, to the point where Omatsuri is now more commonly associated with lavish firework shows, intricate porcelain masks, delicious food, and good friends instead of the core basis of purification, though the traditions are still there.

In the more developed eastern civilizations that border on continents with more access to water, Omatsuri is seen as a necessity, a rite of passage for the coming year that marks a little bit around the 75% mark of the summer season. Therewithin, the traditions of Omatsuri, including the festival-esq activities that have been adopted into it, are not seen as necessarily "sacred" but as more of a necessity. Regardless of their opinions on whether or not the holiday should be celebrated and whether or not water should be used in this way, it is done with no inhibitions. This is in stark contrast to the more lawless western civilizations of Pteris, where both water and community is more rare. Shockingly, the people of the west treat Omatsuri with the most reverence out of everyone on Pteris, as they are the most vulnerable to the demonic threat. They may not be able to partake in the "celebration" of it, but simply finding someone who you can cleanse hands with and bless their path with water is seen as a saving grace, an unexpected moment of camaraderie in the dark.

Despite differences in celebration that stem from an available amount of resources, everyone, from solo adventurers to small tribes to large, developed cities, celebrates Omatsuri if they have heard of it. After all, at its core, Omatsuri is all about cleansing your soul and blessing your path, which is easy to do without grand festivity to accompany it.

HISTORY

Many of the cultural connotations behind Omatsuri stem from spiritual beliefs that revolve around the warding off of demons, which caused the holiday to spike in popularity after the Demonic Invasion. Cleaning your hands and feet with water can be seen as a spiritually pure act that can ward you from evil, which can have some physical benefits if holy water is used in the matter.