Phoebus said onApril 12, 2004 08:29 AMDELETE Hey Caddok,
"At the risk of inundating you with more egg-stuff, in Greece we don't try to find them--we boil them and paint them red, and then engage in a sort of gladiatorial contest where we try to crunch the other person's egg without crunching our own!!! And there is no prize except for bragging rights!"
No problem.
You're a gamer, right Phoebus? I used to be in a D&D club on Mondaynights. The GM asked us to write little customs and traditions and the like that he could use to liven up the setting of the world. Mine involved eggs. Give it a read and let me know what you think.
For the rest of you SGers: Fee free to comment as you will. I like hearing the pro's and con's of my written work and gaming crap.
-c
*********************************
Festivals of Kalamar
The Egg Toss
Beyond the shantytowns surrounding Bet Kalama, among the farmers and woodsmen, there are many festivals seldom seen by the townies. One such event is held every fall as the second crops of the year are collected from the fields. It is called the Egg Toss and marks the start of the fall season.
On the day after the scythes 7th night, people from all over the surrounding countryside gather just to the north of Bet Kalamar for the yearly Egg Toss. The party begins early in the morning and goes on throughout the day with music and dancing.
At the center of the revelry two poles are erected with a rope stretched between them. The poles are then roped off in a large square; the rope between the poles bisects the square. Sheets are hung over the rope making a pillowing wall to separate the roped off area into two sides.
During the previous week young men of marrying age will select and paint a boiled egg. Each one is different and has a mark or symbol on it as part of the painting. The young men wear a copy of this symbol on the backs of their shirts. When the time comes, normally noon, all the egg painters move into one side of the roped off area. All the eligible young women file into the other side of the area. Each side is hidden from the other by the sheets hung over the line connecting the poles. The crowd (the rest of the party goers) counts down from 9 to 1, the number of months to the beginning of the next summer. When they reach 1 the egg painters toss their eggs high into the air over the sheet so as to come down on the other side. Meanwhile, on the other side of the sheet, the young ladies scramble to catch the eggs. It is considered bad form to catch more than one egg so the tactic of using ones skirts to catch eggs is frowned on and ladies who do such things are considered harlots. Hence, all egg catching is done with the hands.
Hucking an egg so far that it goes beyond the roped off area will incur accusations of being funny, not right, or out and out homosexual. Hence, a great deal of time is spent hucking boiled eggs over fences, hedges, or anything else one cannot see through.
Getting caught practicing is tantamount to getting caught touching ones self and is embarrassing beyond reason. Such eager individuals are often said to have been caught yoking the field (or barn, or forest, or wherever they were discovered).
The girls fortunate enough to come away with an egg spend the early afternoon comparing the painted pattern on the egg to the symbols worn on the shirts of the young men. Once they have located the man matching the egg in their grasp they look him over, unbeknownst to the man in question, and decide if they like him or not. If the answer is yes, they will run off and tell their mothers who will then send a trusted friend to find the mother of the young man and inform them that their son has been chosen for marriage. Then the mother of the chosen man will make the mans mark (or sign his name) on a slip of paper and drop it into a small barrel. If no one catches a particular mans egg he will have to wait until next year and try again. Picking eggs off the ground is simply as unthinkable as eating pig slop from the trough.
Just before the huge communal meal at the onset of dusk, a local elder will draw each name from the barrel and read it aloud. When a man hears his name he runs to stand beside the elder and closes his eyes. The girl that has chosen him then runs up and places the fellows egg in his hand at witch point he opens his eyes to see his bride to be. The couples are married at the end of the meal, but before desert. They feed each other the desert, normally some sort of cake or sweet pudding, and it is customary to make as little effort as possible to get the desert into your new spouses mouth.
The egg itself is not eaten. In most cases it is saved as a keepsake and considered the first gift a husband gives to his wife, a kind of engagement egg.
Now, before the elder calls out the names of the young men, the young men have no idea who their perspective new wife will be. This being the case all of the egg tossers are on their best behavior for the whole of the day. One would not want to offend ones new wife without knowing it. To compound the fear of offence, the young man has no choice at all in any matter having to do with who his wife to be is. He simply cant say, No.
In the event that the catcher of an egg is unsure of whether or not her perspective husband is a good catch or not, it is perfectly acceptable to seek council with his family and friends. This is done through a go-between, never done by the bride to be herself lest she expose herself as the egg catcher.
Should she decide that the painter of her egg is unworthy she has a few options open to her.
1: She may trade eggs with someone else. This trading of eggs is hot and heavy and laced with promises and vows of favors and gifts.
2: Rather than fessing up to catching the egg she may slink off into private and consume the evidence. This runs the risk of having egg on ones breath for the rest of the night witch incurs suspicious looks from others. If such suspicion is cast upon a young woman others may speak behind her back claiming she is a notorious prude.
3: The young lady may simply give the egg to someone who wasnt fortunate enough to catch one herself. This tends to make the receiver of the egg appear to be desperate or a beggar. Worse, it may be said that Fate found her too undesirable and she wasnt meant to marry. She will run the risk of having a bad marriage filled with heartache and hardship.
4: If the potential husband is SO offensive that the young lady wouldnt want to inflict him on another or even be suspected of eating an egg, she may simply cast the egg into the area where the young ladies had stood to catch them in the first place. This makes it appear that the egg had never been caught at all. The fellow belonging to that egg will have to wait until next year and paint another egg.
***
In places where young men are scarce, or the young ladies plentiful, the locals may encourage travelers to join in the festival. The exact implications of hucking an egg at a local girl may not be explained as completely as an honest man would like and the community will encourage the young man to stay and take on the responsibility Fate has laid on him. Or, in the second case, take the young wife with him, as it would offend the town and Gods to do otherwise.
This would be a holy PAIN IN THE ASS for the adventurer on the go, but could make for some great role-playing if the PC decides to grin and bear it. It would of cores add an NPC to the party though.
"At the risk of inundating you with more egg-stuff, in Greece we don't try to find them--we boil them and paint them red, and then engage in a sort of gladiatorial contest where we try to crunch the other person's egg without crunching our own!!! And there is no prize except for bragging rights!"
No problem.
You're a gamer, right Phoebus? I used to be in a D&D club on Mondaynights. The GM asked us to write little customs and traditions and the like that he could use to liven up the setting of the world. Mine involved eggs. Give it a read and let me know what you think.
For the rest of you SGers: Fee free to comment as you will. I like hearing the pro's and con's of my written work and gaming crap.
-c
*********************************
Festivals of Kalamar
The Egg Toss
Beyond the shantytowns surrounding Bet Kalama, among the farmers and woodsmen, there are many festivals seldom seen by the townies. One such event is held every fall as the second crops of the year are collected from the fields. It is called the Egg Toss and marks the start of the fall season.
On the day after the scythes 7th night, people from all over the surrounding countryside gather just to the north of Bet Kalamar for the yearly Egg Toss. The party begins early in the morning and goes on throughout the day with music and dancing.
At the center of the revelry two poles are erected with a rope stretched between them. The poles are then roped off in a large square; the rope between the poles bisects the square. Sheets are hung over the rope making a pillowing wall to separate the roped off area into two sides.
During the previous week young men of marrying age will select and paint a boiled egg. Each one is different and has a mark or symbol on it as part of the painting. The young men wear a copy of this symbol on the backs of their shirts. When the time comes, normally noon, all the egg painters move into one side of the roped off area. All the eligible young women file into the other side of the area. Each side is hidden from the other by the sheets hung over the line connecting the poles. The crowd (the rest of the party goers) counts down from 9 to 1, the number of months to the beginning of the next summer. When they reach 1 the egg painters toss their eggs high into the air over the sheet so as to come down on the other side. Meanwhile, on the other side of the sheet, the young ladies scramble to catch the eggs. It is considered bad form to catch more than one egg so the tactic of using ones skirts to catch eggs is frowned on and ladies who do such things are considered harlots. Hence, all egg catching is done with the hands.
Hucking an egg so far that it goes beyond the roped off area will incur accusations of being funny, not right, or out and out homosexual. Hence, a great deal of time is spent hucking boiled eggs over fences, hedges, or anything else one cannot see through.
Getting caught practicing is tantamount to getting caught touching ones self and is embarrassing beyond reason. Such eager individuals are often said to have been caught yoking the field (or barn, or forest, or wherever they were discovered).
The girls fortunate enough to come away with an egg spend the early afternoon comparing the painted pattern on the egg to the symbols worn on the shirts of the young men. Once they have located the man matching the egg in their grasp they look him over, unbeknownst to the man in question, and decide if they like him or not. If the answer is yes, they will run off and tell their mothers who will then send a trusted friend to find the mother of the young man and inform them that their son has been chosen for marriage. Then the mother of the chosen man will make the mans mark (or sign his name) on a slip of paper and drop it into a small barrel. If no one catches a particular mans egg he will have to wait until next year and try again. Picking eggs off the ground is simply as unthinkable as eating pig slop from the trough.
Just before the huge communal meal at the onset of dusk, a local elder will draw each name from the barrel and read it aloud. When a man hears his name he runs to stand beside the elder and closes his eyes. The girl that has chosen him then runs up and places the fellows egg in his hand at witch point he opens his eyes to see his bride to be. The couples are married at the end of the meal, but before desert. They feed each other the desert, normally some sort of cake or sweet pudding, and it is customary to make as little effort as possible to get the desert into your new spouses mouth.
The egg itself is not eaten. In most cases it is saved as a keepsake and considered the first gift a husband gives to his wife, a kind of engagement egg.
Now, before the elder calls out the names of the young men, the young men have no idea who their perspective new wife will be. This being the case all of the egg tossers are on their best behavior for the whole of the day. One would not want to offend ones new wife without knowing it. To compound the fear of offence, the young man has no choice at all in any matter having to do with who his wife to be is. He simply cant say, No.
In the event that the catcher of an egg is unsure of whether or not her perspective husband is a good catch or not, it is perfectly acceptable to seek council with his family and friends. This is done through a go-between, never done by the bride to be herself lest she expose herself as the egg catcher.
Should she decide that the painter of her egg is unworthy she has a few options open to her.
1: She may trade eggs with someone else. This trading of eggs is hot and heavy and laced with promises and vows of favors and gifts.
2: Rather than fessing up to catching the egg she may slink off into private and consume the evidence. This runs the risk of having egg on ones breath for the rest of the night witch incurs suspicious looks from others. If such suspicion is cast upon a young woman others may speak behind her back claiming she is a notorious prude.
3: The young lady may simply give the egg to someone who wasnt fortunate enough to catch one herself. This tends to make the receiver of the egg appear to be desperate or a beggar. Worse, it may be said that Fate found her too undesirable and she wasnt meant to marry. She will run the risk of having a bad marriage filled with heartache and hardship.
4: If the potential husband is SO offensive that the young lady wouldnt want to inflict him on another or even be suspected of eating an egg, she may simply cast the egg into the area where the young ladies had stood to catch them in the first place. This makes it appear that the egg had never been caught at all. The fellow belonging to that egg will have to wait until next year and paint another egg.
***
In places where young men are scarce, or the young ladies plentiful, the locals may encourage travelers to join in the festival. The exact implications of hucking an egg at a local girl may not be explained as completely as an honest man would like and the community will encourage the young man to stay and take on the responsibility Fate has laid on him. Or, in the second case, take the young wife with him, as it would offend the town and Gods to do otherwise.
This would be a holy PAIN IN THE ASS for the adventurer on the go, but could make for some great role-playing if the PC decides to grin and bear it. It would of cores add an NPC to the party though.
I think trading eggs would make for a sweet short story. Girl inniates an egg trade with the promise of favors and such, only to find that deep down she got the looser and the tradee got the winner. Regret puncutated by obligation.
Good stuff!
One last thing - Im allergic to eggs. How would they interpet that?
take it light,
ph