Tamriel-Wide H/F

Holidays Celebrated Across All Provinces

Below are Tamriel-wide holidays—observed in every province—with concise briefs, date anchors, dominant themes, and provincial color to stage scenes anywhere on the map.

New Life Festival

Date: Morning Star 1
Theme: Renewal; turning of the year; revels after solemnity.

Province texture:

  • Cyrodiil: Temple bells, civic races, public feasts around the Temple of the One.

  • Skyrim: Mead-heavy revels; torchlit river plunges in Windhelm and Solitude.

  • High Rock: Masked balls in Wayrest, choirs in Daggerfall; gift-giving framed as “virtuous patronage.”

  • Hammerfell: Lantern flotillas in Sentinel’s harbor; spare desert rites at oases.

  • Morrowind: Measured temple processions; alms and orderly street fairs under Ordinators’ eyes.

  • Summerset: Choral dawn hymns on terraces; restrained elegance, little street chaos.

  • Valenwood: Meat feasts at village perimeters to spare the Green.

  • Elsweyr: Moon-sugar pastries; night music under Masser and Secunda.

  • Black Marsh: Low-drum gatherings beneath Hist roots; sap blessings replace noisy parades.

South Wind’s Prayer

Date: Morning Star 15 (variably cited 14/15)
Theme: Interfaith plea for a good planting season; temples open healing and blessings.

Province texture:

  • Cyrodiil/High Rock: Packed chapels; farm tools blessed.

  • Hammerfell: Prayers linked to fishing winds on the Iliac; coastal fast broken at sundown.

  • Skyrim: Hearth offerings to stave late frosts.

  • Morrowind: Quiet attendance; rites folded into Tribunal liturgy.

  • Summerset: Measured invocations of Kynareth/Auri-El; no street spectacle.

  • Valenwood: Hunters, not planters—focus shifts to balanced game herds.

  • Elsweyr: Water-drawing rites to “cool” the sands.

  • Black Marsh: Petition reframed as water-height omens under the Hist.

Heart’s Day

Date: Sun’s Dawn 16
Theme: Lovers, hospitality, and the old bardic legend retold; widely commercialized.

Province texture:

  • High Rock: Oath-bouquets and salon poetry.

  • Cyrodiil: Inns comp rooms for couples; lantern walks on Lake Rumare.

  • Summerset: Silver-masked garden promenades.

  • Hammerfell: Rooftop dinners under warm desert wind.

  • Skyrim: Carved runes exchanged; hot spring trysts near Kynesgrove.

  • Morrowind: Reserved gifts, shrine visits to Dibella or local equivalents.

  • Valenwood: Story-duels by Spinners settle courtships.

  • Elsweyr: Snowberry cordials, sugar confections.

  • Black Marsh: Pair-blessings at root pools; minimal spectacle.

First Planting

Date: First Seed 7
Theme: Sow the fields; reconcile disputes; temples run free clinics.

Province texture:

  • Cyrodiil/High Rock/Hammerfell: Plow-blessing parades; seed baskets sprinkled at city gates.

  • Skyrim: Stone-ring vows to keep boundary lines honest.

  • Morrowind: Fisher/ash-farm substitutions where soil is poor; civic order emphasized.

  • Summerset: Ritual seed bowls for symbolism, not subsistence.

  • Valenwood: Metaphorical “planting” of hunts and tales.

  • Elsweyr: Irrigation trenches opened; date-palm prayers.

  • Black Marsh: River-flow clearings rather than sowing; mosquito-smoke wards.

Second Planting

Date: Second Seed 7
Theme: “Improve on the first sowing”; second round of temple cures.

Province texture:

  • Cyrodiil/High Rock: Market remissions for farm debt common.

  • Hammerfell: Canal checks and floodgate rites.

  • Skyrim: Frost scrying—whether to risk late barley.

  • Morrowind: Slurry beds and saltrice rites in the south.

  • Others: Mirror local First Planting variants.

Jester’s Festival

Date: Rain’s Hand 28
Theme: Licensed foolishness; satire of elites; roaming troupes; city-wide pranks.

Province texture:

  • Cyrodiil: Street farces mock the Elder Council under tacit watch.

  • High Rock: Courtly inversions; witty duels of verse.

  • Hammerfell: Fire-juggling and oud buskers; guard leniency within limits.

  • Skyrim: Mead-games, snow-pie throws, bear-baiting banned but winked at.

  • Morrowind: Heavily contained inside canton plazas.

  • Summerset: Precision illusions; humor stays “elevated.”

  • Valenwood: Trickster hunts that end in feasts.

  • Elsweyr: Moon-clown acrobats; sugar-dust confetti.

  • Black Marsh: Low-key—bog jesters, marshfire puppetry.

Merchants’ Festival

Date: Sun’s Height 10
Theme: Province-spanning sales; prices slashed; busiest shopping day of the year.

Province texture:

  • Cyrodiil: Guild permits and stall lotteries; pickpockets surge.

  • High Rock: Guildmasters sponsor fashion showings.

  • Hammerfell: Harbor auctions under lantern nets.

  • Skyrim: Smithies run “steel oath” specials.

  • Morrowind: Ordinator-watched discount stalls; contracts stamped en masse.

  • Summerset: Luxury goods; enchantment boutiques host demonstrations.

  • Valenwood: Traveling butchers, bone-craft stalls.

  • Elsweyr: Spice caravans time arrivals to this day.

  • Black Marsh: Boat-to-boat barter on canals.

Sun’s Rest

Date: Sun’s Height 20
Theme: Trade holiday; shops closed by Merchant Guild fines; day of leisure.

Province texture:

  • Everywhere: Taverns and temples open; citizens picnic, meet patrons, or draft contracts for the next push.

  • Ports: Crews take shore leave in shifts; harbor patrols doubled.

Tales and Tallows

Date: Hearthfire 3
Theme: Necromancy lore and fear of the dead; citizens still celebrate but avoid dark alleys; divides communities.

Province texture:

  • Cyrodiil: Candlelit story hours; Guard curfews in poorer wards.

  • Skyrim: Barrow doors warded; mead halls trade ghost tales.

  • High Rock: Mages thrive; laity shun streets after dusk.

  • Hammerfell: Ancestor lament poetry; anti-spirit charms sold openly.

  • Morrowind: Ancestor shrines busiest; Temple discourages excess fear.

  • Summerset: Strictly academic lectures; street level subdued.

  • Valenwood: Spinners frame the night as “memory walking,” not license.

  • Elsweyr: Graveyard vigils with milk and sugar offerings.

  • Black Marsh: Root-pool lanterns; Hist-guided silence.

Witches Festival

Date: Frostfall 13
Theme: Folk dread and indulgence; revenant masks; harvest-end misrule with occult trappings.

Province texture:

  • Skyrim: Barrow effigies burned; charmed gourds.

  • High Rock: Hedge-witch markets in side lanes; nobles attend masked.

  • Hammerfell: Desert warding circles at camp edges.

  • Cyrodiil: Carnival stalls, bone-dice games; chapels decry indulgence.

  • Morrowind: Controlled; Temple warns against “outsider rites.”

  • Summerset: Sanitized pageants; illusion light-shows.

  • Valenwood: Beast masks; howl choruses at treelines.

  • Elsweyr: Night hunts with lantern bats; Witchmother tales.

  • Black Marsh: Bog-fires; offerings to keep swamp spirits appeased.

Warrior’s Festival

Date: Sun’s Dusk 20
Theme: Arms discounts; street bouts; rowdy but broadly pardoned scuffles.

Province texture:

  • Skyrim: Mead-hall tourneys; shield-bearer trials.

  • Hammerfell: Sword-dance showcases; prize duels near forges.

  • High Rock: Knightly tilts and sponsor medals.

  • Cyrodiil: Legion recruiters visible; prize contracts posted.

  • Others: Local combat arts brought center stage; healers do brisk trade.

North Wind’s Prayer

Date: Evening Star 15
Theme: Temple thanksgiving for harvest and mild winter; services discounted; considered holy by many.

Province texture:

  • Everywhere: Queues at chapels; travel blessings before snow or storms.

  • Skyrim: Longhouse hearth rites to break the deepest cold.

  • Hammerfell: Desert camps thank for safe caravans and wells.

  • Morrowind: Ash-water libations matched to choral drones.

  • Summerset: Single sustained “continuance tone” in sanctums.

  • Valenwood/Black Marsh/Elsweyr: Nature-tilted thanks—game, water levels, and winds.

Saturalia

Date: Evening Star 25
Theme: Winter revels; Wayrest-bred fashions; aesthetics later bound up with New Life across Tamriel.

Province texture:

  • High Rock: Origin point—opulent salons and tree-dressings.

  • Cyrodiil: Urban gift markets; pageant wagons.

  • Skyrim: Hearth feasts; frost games.

  • Hammerfell: Night bazaars; citrus wine.

  • Morrowind: Muted; family tables over street hurly-burly.

  • Summerset: Curated luxury; etiquette foremost.

  • Valenwood: Meat-heavy sharing tables; song rounds.

  • Elsweyr: Sugar cakes; bright lantern chains.

  • Black Marsh: Phosphor fungus and reed-craft tokens.

Old Life Festival

Date: Evening Star 30/31
Theme: Year’s farewell; remembrance notes for the dead left at shrines; practiced everywhere due to Imperial reach.

Province texture:

  • Everywhere: Quiet first, then soft release before New Life.

  • Cyrodiil: Pilgrimage routes into the Imperial Heartland; lakeside lanterns.

  • Skyrim: Wind-carried ashes; cairn circles.

  • High Rock: Fractured-crystal lamps in vigil.

  • Hammerfell: Sand-and-flame bowl extinguished at midnight.

  • Morrowind: Ancestor alcoves crowded; whispered litanies.

  • Summerset: One-hour total stillness before star-sung closure.

  • Valenwood: Tokens buried at roots to “feed” renewal.

  • Elsweyr: Moon-guided sky lanterns.

  • Black Marsh: Offerings pressed into mud at great roots.