The Greening

The Greening, April 4th, is a Spring Festival of the Kithain celebrated in the south of Concordia.

Overview

This festival is commonly celebrated in the Kingdom of Willows and is also called the Festival of Crocuses. Seelie Celebrants weave these early spring flowers into their hair and clothes and wilders participate in a morris dance while each childling receives a crown of woven grass. It is considered to bode ill for the coming year if no grass can be found for the weaving.

The Unseelie in southern Concordia celebrate the Greening as well, but in their own way. They, too, realize the importance of their childling population — in particular, those young Kithain who have experienced their Chrysalises since the last Greening. The Glamour-drenched spirits of newly “born” childlings signal the birth of fresh insights among entrenched philosophies. Each Unseelie childling represents the potential for growth and change. While the Seelie fae exalt the innocent purity of young life, the Unseelie revere the amoral, “sinless” consciousness found only among the very young and inexperienced. Childlings represent action without guilt or repercussions: the quintessential example of Unseelie life. By honoring the childlings among them with gifts and reveling along with them in “childish” play, the Unseelie attempt to recapture their own sense of uninhibited freedom and remind themselves that they, too, are just beginning to emerge.

Shadow Court Variations

The origins of this end-of-winter festival remain obscure even to the most knowledgeable of Unseelie Ritualists. Some believe the festival mimics various early spring festivals among human cultures. In many areas chill winds and snowfalls still testify to winter’s grip but in temperate and tropical lands, winter is already in full retreat.

The Shadow Court enacts a special Greening ritual, selecting one new childling to serve as the Green Child. The chosen childling receives massive doses of Glamour along with their Greening presents, and then is set loose to “do their thing.” His or her words and actions are carefully recorded by assigned watchers as they celebrate the festival, since they may contain portents and omens for the coming year. When the festival is over, the Green Child’s memories are selectively restructured so that they retain no clear knowledge of what they said and did during the festival.

References

1. CTD. Changeling: The Dreaming Second Edition, p. 82.
2. CTD. The Shadow Court, p. 45.