Wariwal is a holiday which takes place each year from Hepdoa 21st - 24th, beginning on Tulday and ending on Yenday.
Wariwal is a gift giving and social gathering holiday which is among the most widely observed in Mersia.
Wariwal consists of three phases.
On Hepdoa 21st, the first day of Wariwal, families or other social groups will convene to share a meal. Following this meal, each person present will present their gift to their chosen or assigned recipient. Because each person is only buying one gift, period, these gifts are usually quite nice.
One recipient is chosen in advance of Wariwal by each person, or assigned by random chance.
Groups or families who opt to choose their own recipients will usually choose someone who is somewhat distant from them. For example, it is more common to choose a cousin, aunt, or uncle, and less common to choose a sibling or parent. It is considered to be in poor taste to choose the same person two years in a row.
The advantage of choosing is ensuring you have a recipient you know well enough to get a decent gift for. The disadvantage of choosing is risking having some member of the group not receive a gift. It is humiliating and shameful to have nobody choose you as their recipient for Wariwal. The colloquial term for such individuals, which is often used as an insult, is “empty-boxer”.
Equally likely and inconvenient is when the same individual is chosen as a recipient by more than one person. Though not exactly as humiliating as not being chosen at all, it is nonetheless an awkward and inconvenient situation to find oneself in.
Groups or families who opt to have their recipient randomly chosen will drop their names into a bag a month ahead of Wariwal, and then have each participant pick a name out. If the last person to pick selects their own name, the entire drawing is usually redone. In some groups, it is common to also write some gift ideas on the slip that is placed in the bag.
The advantage of random selection is ensuring that every participant is someone's recipient. The disadvantage of random selection is the risk of selecting someone you dislike, or do not know well.
Those who were not chosen as anyone's recipient for Wariwal will most often find another non-chosen and designate them to be their recipient for Reciprocation.
After receiving a gift, each recipient will spend the middle two days of Wariwal, the 22nd and 23rd, searching for a gift of reciprocation for their giver. The gift of gratitude is not generally expected to be an equal response to the “Unveiling” gift. A good rule of thumb is that the reciprocation gift should be at least 20% as valuable as the unveiling gift, but usually no more than 50% as valuable. Despite that, it is not unheard of for individuals to find a response gift that is superior in quality to the unveiling gift.
Traditionally, it is considered to be in poor taste to get a thank you gift in advance of Unveiling day, or to give a gift of a personal possession one already had.
Though most businesses, especially industrial and financial businesses, close for Wariwal, certain storefronts re-open specifically for Searching, and may re-decorate for the occasion. It is not unheard of for businesses to hire extra hands specifically for the 22nd and 23rd, as these are among the busiest shopping days of the entire year.
On the 24th, the group reconvenes to allow each individual to give their gift of gratitude to their giver. Usually another meal is shared on this night, the last night of Wariwal.
Being an autumn holiday, decorations for Wariwal consist of late-autumn imagery. Most commonly, fallen leaves are tied in long chains at the stems and hung around the outside of buildings, in front of windows. Pumpkins or other gourds are also often used for decoration, and may or may not be carved.
Additionally, brooms with wooden handles and straw bristles may be used as decorations, with one leaning against the exterior doorframe of the home or business.
Decorations are often put up at the beginning of Hepdoa, and may stay up until the end of the month. It is considered to be in poor taste to have Wariwal decorations up during Famarsa, which is considered to be too early, or Jol, which is considered to be too late.
Wariwal predates written history. It is widely believed according to both draconic oral accounts and the earliest available texts to have originated in what is now Poirien.
In Docecit, a lesser deity, or according to some, a powerful wandering nature spirit named Pyrrhus, who wore a red robe with a trim of orange-dyed cotton, came to a village and blessed their soil. In return, the nature spirit demanded one pound for each five pounds of yield from the harvest, and the spirit left the village.
The growing season passed, and the people of the village were astounded to find that their harvest was double what it had been the year before. In fact, their yield surpassed their expectations by such a great amount, the villagers traded away whatever they could not eat themselves.
By the time the deity returned in Hepdoa, the village had only retained enough food to feed themselves through winter, and refused to give Pyrrhus what they had demanded. “I have told you the price is one fifth. I will take my one fifth. If you will not give up what I have asked, I will take what you have enough of.” Enraged, the spirit made a great bed of dry, fallen leaves, and upon that bed, incinerated one villager for every five in the village.
The village spent the winter in shock, and by spring this shock became rage. When Pyrrhus returned in Docecit the following year, they once again offered to bless the soil. However, the village captured Pyrrhus and burned them on a bed of leaves from the previous year they had kept dry in their barn. As Pyrrhus burned, they cursed the soil. The ropes burned away before Pyrrhus burned to death, and Pyrrhus escaped into the wilderness.
The village was forced to trade away all of the valuables they had gained from trading the produce of Pyrrhus's initial blessing. If not for those valuables, the village would not have had any food, and would have withered away. It was a difficult winter for them.
The following Spring, Pyrrhus returned once more. They apologized for taking the lives of one fifth of the village, and forgave the village for attempting to kill them. After this, Pyrrhus repeated the offer they had extended every year. Recalling that the reward for complying far exceeded the cost, they accepted. That year, the returning of one fifth of the yield to Pyrrhus is considered the first Wariwal Reciprocation.