Twelve Days of Yule
Day One: 21st
► The Yule log is lit.
Day Four: 24th
► Children lay out sweets at night to earn the favour of the good spirits.
Day Five: 25th
► The main Yule meals are had.
Day Six: 26th
► Gifts are given.
► The first day of the Stag Hunt.
Day Seven: 27th
► The second day of the Stag Hunt
Day Eight: 28th
► The monarch visits the temple in the evening.
Day Nine: 29th
► The Yule Ball is held.
Day Eleven: 31st
► Children leave their shoes by the fire for blessings.
Day Twelve: 1st
► Day of Misrule
History
Alynthia inspired much of the traditions of the countries they once ruled. But time has meant their influence has either left or morphed into something unique.
Food, Decor and Family
Food
► They have calendars for children where they get a tiny sweet each day as they count down to Yule.
► The rich have goose for dinner, while the middle classes and lower classes have chicken.
Decor
► All families have a Yule log, it’s a tradition carried on from those travellers who went to Istara and brought them home.
► The middle classes or the poor must often buy single antlers or smaller ones at the market before Yule if they want to keep them out of their home.
Family
► Children leave their shoes by the fire, this is in hopes that the spirits of Yule will leave them a blessing for the new year
► In richer households the servants also have a yule meal, but that is eaten during lunch time so they are ready for the evening. They get 3 hours off duties to have their yule meal.
Community
► All walks of life give gifts to each other. Employers tend to give their workers a small bonus to make sure they can give a small gift to everyone in their household.
► There is often a Yule ball in the royal palace. The princesses and queen will wear a garland of mistletoe or holly in their hair. These come from Istara or Olean Ridh. Everyone wears red or green.
► They make sure to breed stags to have large antlers before they are released into the wild, as this is a tradition that the rich and royals do two days after the evening of Yule. They hunt the stags and the antlers are used to hang outside the front door to keep the bad spirits away that will bring them misfortune.
► Day of Misrule is the grandfather of the ‘Feast of Fools’ which was adopted by Istara. The Day of Misrule involves parades and songs, where merrymen and performers are treated as religious figures and nobility for a day.
But no two families are the same. So everyone’s Yule will be different, too. The people of the Forgotten Kingdoms are free to celebrate however they like.