Kharorekh

Well, it’s that time of year again, everyone. Granted, I’m a little late in starting this, but I figured I should write something this month, to make up for the radio silence that was November.

I’m sure a lot of you’re wondering, “Do you celebrate Christmas, Paph?” Well, yes and no. I do have my Terran friends over for the 25th, and we call that Christmas, but it’s more of a cursory gesture on my people’s part than the major event other peoples make it out to be.

Harkhahietha Kharorekh (often colloquially referred to as just “Kharorekh”), translating to “Winter’s Ending”, is the Winter Solstice holiday we VolReians celebrate— at least on most of this continent. So, what IS the Kharoreth?

Well, I should’ve talked about it some time around the evening of December 23rd, as that’s roughly when it starts (the actual calendar conversion is a lot more involved, but I’m picking this Gregorian date for the sake of simplicity). Here, dragons and kobolds alike pluck out any loose scales, and glue them to the ends of fallen branches (in my great-great-great pibling’s day, they used to do this with tree sap). After this, we would “plant” them in little pots full of dirt, and put them near a barren tree.

Thus concludes the first day of Kharoreth.

If you’re in a dragon-heavy area, take the time to see the “forests” of these shed-scale trees that spring up this time of year.

In Ye Olden Times, this was a form of sympathetic magic; the scales on the ends of branches would soon find their mirror in the leaves on living ones. Now, we just do it because it’s tradition. We don’t put ornaments on the resulting “scale tree”, but we do paint it.

You’ll notice how dragon and kobold-centric this tradition is. That’s because fayakh, gargoyles, and most fae have their own things they do either before, during, or after this time. And if you’re wondering whether anthros with scales can get in on this, the answer depends on who you ask.

Generally speaking, it’s fine if you’ve got one of us guiding you, and you intend to participate in the other festivities (which isn’t something you should decide lightly, ‘cause this shit’s gonna keep going ‘til January 2nd). If you’re just doing it as a novelty…

Well, we’ve got names for you that I won’t repeat here.

What you do on the 2nd day varies depending on where you live. In particular, how close you are to the Gates of Phosa, the mouth of a cave located in the center of what was once East Jophali.

Phosa is the realm wherein the half-born (demons) go to rest when they run low on spiritual energy sapped from those with fully-formed souls.

Should you live close enough to these gates, you’re liable to get roped into standing with your fellows in a ring before them as VolRei’s sun sets, and performing an incantation dedicated to the Half-Born sovereign Zophasthra, while making offerings to Phosa’s subjects in the hopes of placating them for the length of the Solstice.

The Solstice is a time of great emotional vulnerability for the full-souled, and the half-born gleefully feast on the fears and anxieties that come with each coming Spring. If you don’t live within reach of the gates, then there is little you can do but pray and make offerings to Zophasthra, that they might keep their charges from doing too much damage.

This is a rite all full-souled peoples are encouraged to join in on, for it affects all of us.

The 3rd day, VolReians all collectively reenact the “What’s This?” scene from The Nightmare Before Christmas as phantoms and visions of Earthly yuletide traditions appear everywhere. Santas, distant ho-ho-hos, and other visions that vary depending on where you live (expect to see a witch or two in the places where Italy once lie).

It wasn’t always like this. In fact, it’s rather aggravating: for the VolReians in my country, as this is a time where the veil between here and the hereafter is lifted, and spirits of the dearly departed reunite with their loved ones for a brief span of time.

Having all this noise built up from centuries of unchecked collective thought threatening to drown this spiritual occasion out entirely can be disheartening if you let it.

If you let it.

What some people (myself and mine included) do is have Terran friends over to meet the departed and broaden each culture’s understanding of one another, with the living VolReians acting as translators most of the time.

The 4th day is dedicated to dealing with the year’s unfinished business, and making amends with any friends or family members you may have had a recent conflict with. This one is both the hardest and potentially most dangerous; is that grudge you’ve been holding petty, or have you cut a genuinely toxic figure from your life?

You’ve heard the saying “burying the hatchet”, but we have a saying that translates to “burning the grudges away” that stems from this day’s ritual of you and someone you’ve fought with writing down everything that you hold against each other, reading both lists out loud, apologizing, and then both of you throwing it all into the fire.

The 5th day is a day of rest. While there’s no strict mandate against getting work of any kind done on this day, tradition favors taking a day off and letting yourself unwind. A common custom with this day is to light candles mixed with herbs and oils, drink tea made with leaves from the fenihoyiph tree, and chill the fuck out as the high kicks in.

Should fenihoyiph leaves be in short supply, Terran tea leaves, chocolate, or anything else with theobromine should work nicely.

The 6th day is a day of self-purification. Fasting is encouraged (but not required, if you can’t handle it) on this particular day, as is refraining from any form of sex, including the single-player kind. This one’s downright grueling, but doing so is rewarded by...

The 7th day is a massive, sumptuous feast that traditionally consists mostly of meats; this point in time was (and in a lot of places, is) known as “Deep Winter”, a time when food became much more scarce, and cattle were/are slaughtered so they don’t consume the other precious food sources.

All peoples are invited to feast, dance, and participate in the games at play here (simpler than the ones at a Yimaza, due to usually taking place indoors). It’s very much akin to a Yimaza, but with one major addition: the gods themselves (at least, the VolReian ones of this region) are in attendance.

Here, the gods judge everyone else based on their deeds in the past year, and give them either a blessing or a curse that lasts throughout the next one. You can make Santa Claus jokes about this, but they’d better be funny, or else. Suffice it to say, I try not to be noticed by them too much.

The 8th day is a day dedicated to meditating on what the year has taught us, so we can carry its wisdom into the next. Nothing too spectacular, here. Typically, the lessons we’ve learned are written down and displayed on a communal board for all to read.

The 9th day is a day for repentance. You might think that day 4 makes this a little redundant, but where day 4 involves admitting and forgiving past wrongs, day 9 centers around making amends for them.

The 10th day is about expressing gratitude for the positive impact people you know have had on your life, and has no ties to the institutional enshrinement of colonialism. Typically, said gratitude comes in the form of verses of poetry written in elaborate patterns on colorful folded paper.

No pressure for it to be any good, of course; a lot of people make it a point to write “intentionally” cheesy verse so nobody has to feel inferior. At least, people say they do it intentionally.

The 11th day is for saying farewell to those we’ve lost as the year has passed, and to any spirits that may have lingered up to this point. Lastly, we light a pyre and leave it burning until the dawn of the next day as a send-off to the year, the dawning sun representing the “new flame” of the new year.

You may have noticed by now the similarity this tradition holds to some of our end-of-life and wake rites. That’s because, in a sense, this tradition is a wake for the year itself. That said, the time I’m sending this back to won’t exactly be mourning this year’s passing. Things won’t get better immediately, but they will get better. Stay strong, survive. Here’s to another year together.