The reach-year is twelve months, four seasons, and rather more festivals than any single household celebrates. What follows are the major dates observed across most of the Middle Reaches; outliers exist in every cluster.
Velisar’s Morning (1 Brightmonth, year-start). The first dawn of the new year. Bells ring at sunrise in every temple of the Seven, lit by the first flame any household will kindle that day. Children receive new shoes, if the household can afford them. It is considered very ill luck to argue before noon.
The Crescent Markets (every fortnight, on the half-moon). Not strictly a festival, but a living rhythm. The largest harbours hold a market day every half-moon; smaller ones every full moon. Skyfarers organize their crossings around them. Most contracts in the Quiet Reach are signed on a Crescent Day.
The Stoneshare (3 Anvilmonth). Thorin’s principal feast. Smiths bank their forges for one day, drink in the morning, and gift small iron tokens to friends and household. A Stoneshare token, kept in a pocket, is supposed to ward against broken oaths. Many people carry one without remembering where it came from.
The Quiet Hearing (18 Mistmonth). Aevan’s principal feast. Every temple of the Seven opens its smallest interior chamber from midday to sundown. Anyone may enter, sit before a priest of Aevan, and say a thing — a grievance, a confession, a decision they cannot make. The priest does not respond. No record is kept. No name is asked. The speaker leaves separately, by a different door. The temple does not advertise this. The temple does not have to.
The First Furrow (1 Greenmonth). Vessen’s festival. The opening of the spring planting season. Farmer-isles bury a small loaf of bread at the edge of every newly-turned field. Even households who do not farm bake a token loaf and give it to a neighbour.
The Long Watch (the night of 13 Mistmonth). Sylth’s vigil. The longest night of the year. Households leave a single lit candle by the door from sunset to sunrise, in memory of the dead. It is a quiet festival; it is considered improper to hold loud parties on the Long Watch, and most people do not. Sailors at sea light a candle inside the stone-room.
The Long Wake (sunset on 6 Stillmonth to dawn on 7 Stillmonth). Korr’s principal feast. Every temple lights one lamp at sunset for each member of the congregation who has lost someone to violent or untimely death. The lamps burn through the night. Veterans and soldiers gather privately, in small rooms, and drink in silence. At dawn the congregation breaks bread together without speaking. The temple does not preach on the morning of the seventh.
The Star-Tally (12 Mistmonth, the night before the Long Watch). Less a festival than an old habit. On a clear night, families gather on rooftops and count the visible stars. The official tally is, of course, seven among the named stars. Children sometimes report eight or nine; their elders correct them, gently, and tell them to count again. There is no festival on this night; only the counting.
The Foggy Oath (Ember’s End, 14 Stillmonth). A local custom of Ember’s End and a few of its neighbour-isles, not observed elsewhere. On the fortnight when the Fogbowl fills with morning mist, parties to a dispute may walk into the bowl together at dawn and speak. What is said in the Fogbowl that morning is taken as true; what is agreed is taken as binding. The practice has no legal force in the larger world, but in the Reach it is honored.
The Memorial of Two Stars (Maramonth and Nymonth — variable). Two days each year, the calendar of the Old Way — and a quiet minority within the mainstream temples — observes the falls of Mara and Nymira. The temples of the Seven do not officially keep these days. Many people light a small lamp anyway, set it in a window, and say nothing about it. This is not a festival.
The reach-year ends on the Stillness — the last seven days of Stillmonth, when work stops in many trades, ships stay in port, and households gather. Velisar’s Morning follows.