21 December 2018
Crystalhue
This day of artistic creation is traditionally a time for courtship and romantic proposals. During the day, people hang crystal prisms and glass baubles in order to spread light and scatter rainbows in the streets. Celebrants exchange small gifts, typically handmade, as tokens of appreciation or as peace offerings to those they feel they wronged during the year. Worshipers often dye colored streaks in their hair or wear colorful patchwork coats called melaros to which they add new patches every year. In the evenings, celebrants place lanterns on porches and in windows to line the streets
with communal light. Town squares or other community gathering spaces host feasts around bonfires, and these gatherings are a popular time to perform marriage ceremonies, especially for worshipers without the means to throw such elaborate celebrations for themselves.
The sole dark note of Crystalhue is the zonzon doll. In some Shelynite congregations, a child chosen to be the “sibling” passes this strange little doll, made from scraps of leather and cloth and sewn with red thread, among neighbors. The townsfolk give it symbolic gifts and tell the doll happy memories or whisper apologies for those they’ve wronged during the year. The “sibling” child then casts it into the wilderness or sets it afloat to drift down a river, in the hope that it will find its way to the Midnight Lord and relate his sister’s kindness, mercy, and goodwill in the face of the dark place he now resides.