The Ancestors' Day

Takes place on the winter solstice day. It is about honoring the ancestors and the traditions they brought. It is also the New Year’s Eve for the grifix.

The Queen's day (the day before the Ancestors Day)

In the morning, the females that got their sphirix shape that year get through some trials, at the end one of them being chosen “The Queen” which shall be treated like a queen the whole day, assisting the real queen at checking the holiday preparations for the next day. During the twilight, the chosen “Queen” goes in the Healer’s Hut, where the healer gives her a potion that puts her into a trance, where the ancestors show her a moment from the past that will help the village through the incoming year. She must not tell what she saw only after she is sure how and with what will what she saw help.

As part of the preparations for the next day, the grifix decorate the village with painted animal bones gathered through the past year.

 

The Ancestors Day

During the day, the males go at a short hunt where they kill a few animals that will be offered later through a ceremony to the ancestors. They also collect what other fruits and seeds they can find, to be used for the same thing.

Before the sunset, they go to a glade in the forest and clean a large circle from snow. Inside the circle, they leave dead animals and fruits and vegetables they still have from the autumn. During the night, animals come and eat everything. They say that their ancestors, incarnated as animals, come and eat their offers. If the animals don’t eat much or nothing at all, it is a very bad sign for the year to come.

When the night falls, they gather around the fire in the center of the village, where the healer burns some magical herbs that make a very strong smoke. Using her wings and magic to create shapes out of the smoke, the healer shows images and stories from the past, telling stories about old heroes that saved the village and their kind, keeping their memory alive in the young grifix hearts.