Ghyll:Calends Gala

THIS ENTRY STILL VERY MUCH A WORK IN PROGRESS. KEEP YER MITTS OFF.

The Calends Galas, as the name implies, are galas surrounding key calendrical events. In particular, the Calends Galas, traditionally, occur twice a year. In previous years, when the country was primarily agragrian, the galas happened at the end of the harvest, and at the end of the planting. Now that the country is more industrialized, the final Varhookan of Baros, and the final Varhookan of Gomin, have been agreed upon for these events.

On the day of the gala, everything else stops. All businesses have the day off, Government offices and banks are all closed, and schools have the day off.

The Harvest Calends Gala is mostly a agricultural event, with contests for the best produce, best livestock, and many competitions of strength and craft making. The graphorn wrestling contest is always a popular favorite.

The Planting Calends Gala is a quieter event, focused more on artistic and literary endeavors, but also with contests involving cooking - cake-making contests, pie-eating contests, and wine and beer contests.

But the highlight of both galas comes just after sunset, when everyone gathers in the great central tent for the story-telling contest. From sundown to the early hours of the next morning, stories are told, with prizes being given in a variety of categories, including funniest, shortest, and scariest. The overall winner of the story contest is crowned the Author Laureat for the six months until the next gala.

Arariax was the Author Laureat for 9 years running, sometime between -260 and -250EC, and many think that he was driven to his self-imposed exile due to the negative effect that this was having on the contests: Nobody else thought they would ever have a chance to win, so the quality of storytelling was falling considerably.