Religious Ceremonies

Religious Ceremonies are performed at various times during the year. There are a few ceremonies which are very important, like the baptism, and there are a few which are done internally within the temple.

Baptism
See Baptism.

This is one of the most important ceremonies and is the first we are introduced to. The ceremony is done when the child reaches the age of seven and normally attended in their birth season. It is held each season in Ehrenfest. Both nobles' and commoners' children are required to attend the ceremony. The High Bishop blesses the children who attend the ceremony. Sometimes people use the terms "coming of age" in the sense of reaching the baptism age.

Nobles' baptism
In noble society the ceremony is done within the noble's house by calling in blue priests / priestesses or, if you are very rich and high in status, the High Bishop or High Priest. For the noble child this is when they are formally introduced to noble society and they are registered as a citizen of the city and child of the family. This is done with the child registering their magic with a magic tool on the medal. The child is required to bless the priest in return when it is blessed.

Commoners' baptism
For commoners the baptism is held in the temple and is performed by the High Bishop. The day starts with the children walking down the main street of the lower city towards the temple with the commoners gathering and celebrating the happy occasion. In the temple, they gain their citizenship by pressing their blood against a medal and are read the stories of the gods and learn to pray to the gods. In the case of commoners, they use blood to register as they only possess a very small amount of mana. Commoners normally start their apprenticeships for their chosen career after their baptism.

Coming of Age Ceremony
This is a ceremony which is held in celebration when a child comes of age and becomes formally an adult. This happens at the age of 15 and is celebrated seasonally and near the end of the season in Ehrenfest.

Commoners' Coming of Age Ceremony
The commoners' ceremony is held at third bell. Apprentices generally are not allowed to participate in the temple ceremonies. Commoners gather in the temple wearing clothes using their birth colour and listening to the tales of the gods read by the High Bishop. After gaining the blessing and praying to the gods they leave the temple.

How the coming age ceremony works in the orphanage: The person would bathe early in the morning and put on the newly given clothes and finally chant prayers and gratitude in the ceremony. Grey priest / Shrine maidens that work under a blue priest / Shrine maiden are given a small gift by them.

The Healing Ritual
The Healing Ritual is performed by a blue priest or priestess dressed in their ceremonial robes, after an extermination of a mana-absorbing feybeast or feyplant to to heal the land and restore the mana of the earth. It is expected to receive a call from the Knight's Order during autumn. The priest needs a divine instrument, the Staff of Flutrane, and chant the appropiate words of prayer:

"O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change. O twelve goddess who serve by her side. Please hear my prayer and lend me your divine strength. Grant me the power to heal your sister, the Goddess of the Earth Geduldh, who has been wounded by those who serve evil."

The Knight's Order normally calls for two priests, the first one blesses the knights before the battle and the second one performs the Healing Ritual.

Fealty Ceremony
The Fealty Ceremony is performed to introduce new blue priests or shrine maidens. It is normally held by the High Bishop in his or her chambers in front of the altar. The new blue priest or shrine maiden vows to serve the gods and receive their robes at the end. The vow goes as followed:

"O mighty King and Queen of the dark and light, most righteous and divine rulers of the wide heavens. O splendid gods of the Eternal Five, most righteous and divine rulers of the vast mortal realm. Goddess of Water, Flutrane, God of Fire, Leidenschaft, Goddess of Wind, Schutzaria, Goddess of Earth, Geduldh, God of Life, Ewigeliebe. King and Queen, show your divine power that extends throughout the wide heavens and vast mortal realm. Eternal Five, bless we of the vast mortal realm with your divine power. In eternal gratitude for your heavenly powers, I shall worship thee for eternity. I shall live with just hearts, calm hearts, and resolved hearts. I shall have faith in thee as the true and just gods. I vow that I shall pray to thee, gods of nature; I shall thank you, and I shall prepare offering for thee."

Inauguration Ceremony
This ceremony is used to inaugurate the High Bishop. It requires the full turn out of the temples staff, grey and blue priests and shrine maidens to attend as they are introduced to the new High Bishop. At the end they pray to the gods using the common words of prayers: "O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies, O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, O Goddess of Water Flutrane, O God of Fire Leidenschaft, O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, O Goddess of Earth Geduldh, O God of Life Ewigeliebe! We offer you our prayers and gratitude. Praise be to the gods! Glory be to the gods!"

The Dedication Ritual
The Dedication Ritual is conducted during winter and goes on for several days, depending on the amount of chalices to be filled. Only temple related people are allowed to enter the prayer room. It is the most important ritual that is preformed and requires the priests and shrine maidens to fill up chalices with mana, which were brought back to the temple after the Harvest Festival from farming villages. Priests and shrine maidens are grouped together by their mana levels to chant the prayers, to ensure their safety. When people gather with the same purpose and chant the same prayers in unison, the flow of mana speeds up also making it easier for mana to leave the body, which also means that priests with a lower amount of mana would faint from mana shortage, while those with higher mana would still be able to continue. The mana is transmitted through touching the carpet with one's hands and chant the words of prayer. When releasing one's hands the mana flow is stopped. The chalices filled with mana are brought to the farming villages during Spring Prayer to supply the land with mana and support the crops' growth. The words of prayers are these:

"O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies, O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, O Goddess of Water Flutrane, O God of Fire Leidenschaft, O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, O Goddess of Earth Geduldh, O God of Life Ewigeliebe. We honor you who have blessed all beings with life, and pray that we may be blessed further with your divine might."

Spring Prayer
The Spring Prayer is held in early spring before the farmers move from the winter mansions back to the farming villages. Usually two priests will travel together. When they arrive at a winter mansion they hand over the mana-filled chalice to the land-owning giebe. Farming villages not belonging to any land of a giebe, are filled with mana by the blue priests, pouring the mana out of the chalice. The amount of mana they are given directly affects the size of the crop harvested. If no mana is given then it is still possible to farm for a few years but the land will quickly become barren. Prayers recited by the High Bishop:

"O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change. O vwelve goddesses who serve by her side. The Goddess of Earth Geduldh has been freed from the God of Life Ewigeliebe. I pray that you grant your younger sister the power to birth new life. I offer to you our joy and songs of glee. I offer to you our prayers and gratitude, so that we may be blessed with your purifying protection. I ask that you fill the thousand lives upon the wide mortal realm with your divine color. Praise be to Geduldh the Goddess of Earth and Flutrane the Goddess of Water!"

Starbind Ceremony
The Starbind Ceremony is the wedding ceremony and is done yearly at the end of summer in Ehrenfest. The High Bishop is normally the one to conduct the ceremony for both the nobles and commoners, reading tales of the gods to the newly married couples and blesses them. The commoners' ceremony is done earlier in the day, with the nobles' ceremony being done in the evening of the same day. Couples dress up using clothes which are coloured on the colour of their birth season.

Noble
The Starbind Ceremony for nobles is held in the archduke's castle, followed by an nighttime party where singles, without an engagement partner, are obliged to participate. Children aren't allowed to attend the nighttime party as it is meant for adults to look for a marriage partner.

Commoners
The commoners' ceremony is done as part of the Star Festival where everyone besides those related to someone getting married or getting married themselves, pick up taue fruits (best described as water balloons) and spend the day tossing them around with the groom trying to protect his bride from attacks while they run towards their homes. Resentful commoners throw fruits at any dry couple they encounter. Once that is done they have meals at the plaza and prepare for the nighttime festival for adults only which serves the same purpose as the nobles' one.

Harvest Festival
The Harvest Festival is held in autumn, where the blue priests and shrine maidens travel to the countryside alongside scholar officials and visit towns and villages. This is when the baptism, coming of age and starbind ceremonies are conducted for these places. Also taxes are collected and empty chalices are retrieved for the Dedication Ceremony. The blue priests are normally given a percentage of the taxes which are brought to the castle using a magic circle by the scholar official, where their families would need to fetch their collected share.

The commoners celebrate the occassion with serving food and drinks and holding a sports competetion resembling soccer and a bit of handball or rugby. In the game of warf a feybeast is kicked around with the players representing their villages.

Farming villages
All seasonal rituals are held at the same time so that priests wouldn't need to travel to farming villages for every ceremony as farming villages don't have temples.

Trivia

 * Myne's first dedication ceremony started on Earthday
 * When Rozemyne became the High Bishop the adults around her would recite the tales of the gods as her childish voice doesn't carry well.