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--- wariwal [2021/10/20 03:09]
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+++ wariwal [2022/05/08 03:37] (current)
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 ======Wariwal======
-//Wariwal// is a holiday which takes place each year from Hepdoa 21st - 24th, beginning on [[Tulday]] and ending on [[Yenday]].
+//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.
+=====Celebration=====
+Wariwal consists of three phases.
+====Unveiling====
+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.
+===Determining a Recipient===
+One recipient is chosen in advance of Wariwal by each person, or assigned by random chance.
+==Individual Selection==
+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.
+==Random Chance==
+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.
+===Unveiling for Non-chosen===
+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.
+====Searching====
+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.
+===Business Participation===
+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.
+====Reciprocation====
+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.
+=====Decoration=====
+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.
+=====Origins=====
+Wariwal predates written history.
+It is widely believed according to both [[dragon|draconic]] oral accounts and the earliest available texts to have originated in what is now Poirien.
+====Folklore====
+In [[Docecit]], a lesser deity, or according to some, a powerful wandering [[fae|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.

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