Lunar Cycle

Recurring Events

Weekly Events

The Feast of Love
Sune, Goddess of Love
Intimate gatherings of the faithful in which they recline on cushions and couches, eating bitelets and sipping liquers, while enjoying solitary dancers interspersed with readers of poetry and romantic prose. Such gatherings always break up into more private groups afterwards.

Monthly Events

Seeing Justice (1st Day of Month)
Tyr, God of Justice
Chanted prayers and thunderous hymns under the image of a gigantic warhammer that glows white.

The Maiming (13th Day of Month)
Tyr, God of Justice
Chanted prayers and thunderous hymns under the image of a hand surrounded by a nimbus of burning blood, and then tumbles away into darkness.

The Blinding (22nd Day of Month)
Tyr, God of Justice
Chanted prayers and thunderous hymns under the image of two eyes that burst into fountains of flaming tears until they have entirely spilled away. Afterwards, symbolic blindfolds of diaphanous damask are bound over the eyes of worshippers to remind them of Tyr's blindness.

The New Moon

New Moon Revel
Selûne, Goddess of the Moon
Open-air dances and prayers under the moonlight with sacrifices of wine poured out upon the altar.

The Full Moon

Full Moon Revel
Selûne, Goddess of the Moon
Open-air dances and prayers under the moonlight with sacrifices of milk poured out upon the altar.

Grand Revel
Sune, Goddess of Love
A dusk-to-dawn party in which outsiders are invited, dancing and minstrelsry dominate and those of the faith seek converts with fun and an exhibition of the temple's beautiful or art objects.

Festivals & Holidays of Ches

The First Tide (When Ice in Harbor breaks)
Umberlee, Goddess of the Sea
Flute-and-drum parade through the streets by the clergy and faithful, celebrating the breaking of the ice. An animal sacrifice is taken down to the harbor, tied to a large stone and thrown into the water. If it washes back ashore, it is rescued and nurtured back to health, and tended as a sacred animal.

The Shattering (When Ice in Harbor Breaks)
Valkur, God of Sailors
Festival celebrating the shattering of the ice in harbor, commemorated by launching and naming one new ship, which sails around the harbor crewed by Valkuran clergy. Also features the unfurling of new sails that are blessed by the clergy.

The Spring Equinox (19th of Ches)

Fey Day
Civic. High Society.
The veil between this world and the faerie realm of the Feywild is thought to be weak on this day. Though this phenomenon provokes caution in rural areas (with folk avoiding woodlands, putting offerings of food on doorsteps, and the like), it is an occasion of much drinking, singing, and dancing in Waterdeep.

The wealthy host elaborate masked balls, while poorer folk don costumes of their own make and travel door to door, gaining brief entry into the celebrations in exchange for performing a song or a short play. All adopt the guises of fey beings and the supposed rulers of the Feywild, such as Queen Titania, Oberon, and Hyrsam, the Prince of Fools.

Song of Dawn
Lathander, God of the Dawn
Praise-song that blends purely vocal harmonies and counter-harmonies of incredible complexity. Can be heard for blocks around echoing through the Spires of Morning.

The First Feast
Mielikki, Goddess of Forests
Holy rituals and revels where the faithful of Mielikki are expected to enjoy the pleasures of life and sing praises to the Lady of the Forest.

The Rite of Pain & Purity
Loviatar, Goddess of Pain
Rite in which clergy chant and dance on barbed wire, thorns, or broken glass, with senior clergy urging them on with whips and lay worshippers chanting and drumming. This sometimes causes a red mistlike radiance to rise from the dancing floor, and for the dancing clergy to receive messages from the Painmaiden.

Festival of Fleetswake (21st to 30th of Ches)

Fleetswake
Civic.
Spanning the last tenday of Ches, Fleetswake is a mariners' festival celebrating the sea, the sea trades that are their livelihood, and the gods of the sea. While much of the religious seriousness and ceremony is placed on the Fair Seas Festival (see below), many of the events and activities are dedicated in small ways to nearly every sea god or goddess of the Realms.

The bulk of the festival activity occurs in Dock Ward, though the Fiery Flagon in Sea Ward is a hotbed of action during this holiday as well. Among the many events of the Fleetswake festival are boat races (both private boats and the rakers of the city naval guard), the annual Shipwrights' Ball at the Shipwrights' House, guild-sponsored galas at the Copper Cup festhall, and many more.

Any ships entering the harbor during Fleetswake are not charged the standard docking fees for their stay but the ships' captains are expected to donate at least 1 gold piece per day to Umberlee's Cache before they leave Waterdeep's harbor.

High Society
Generally speaking, the Spring Social Season begins with Fleetswake, when winter has let up enough to allow ships to return to the Waterdhavian harbor. Many noble families return during this week, taking rooms in inns while their servants prepare their estates for reinhabiting. By the time of the Highcoin, the nobles have mostly all returned.

Selûne Sashelas (21st of Ches)
Civic. Selûne, Goddess of the Moon.
The opening festival of Fleetswake is one based on a mangled legend in which the elves of the sea said farewell to their brethren upon the land and moved into the deep ocean.

This “historical event” is commemorated by the Twin Parades: A huge line of ships proceeds from the harbor, loops up the coast, and returns. Simultaneously, a land-based parade proceeds from the Docks and through the streets of Waterdeep.

The Shipwrights' Ball (25th of Ches)
High Society.
Held at @JournalEntry[inyp77cVk5U61E8S]{the Shipwrights' House}, what was once a guild celebration has turned into one of the biggest social events of Fleetswake.

Fair Seas Festival (29th - 30th of Ches)
Civic. Umberlee, Goddess of the Sea.
This festival closes the annual Fleetswake festivities. During the two-day festival there is much feasting on seafood and at both dawn and sunset, the waters of Waterdeep's harbor are covered with floating flowers in homage to Umberlee, the chaotic ocean goddess.

The City Guards go from tavern to tavern to collect offerings for Umberlee. Collection boxes also appear at large festival gatherings. Upon sunset of the final day, the collected coin is placed in chests and dumped into the deepest part of the harbor in thanks for safe ports and safe passage in the coming year.

High Society
The returning nobles make their presence known to their fellows with elaborate Fair Seas Feasts. Houses that retain a strong presence in the city have the upper hand in these plans, for they're in place to arrange their feasts and send out invitations to those nobles who are just now getting back into the city.

The nobles also make a point of preparing to contribute to Umberlee's Cache in extravagant ways during these parties, which are the favorite scene for the cache collectors to take up offerings from the noble Houses.

The Highcoin Balls (30th of Ches)

High Society. Waukeen, Goddess of Trade.
While the rest of the city is focused on the Fair Seas Festival, the nobility take the Waukeenar festival of Highcoin very seriously. The event was formerly a single grand ball thrown by the first Open Lord Lord of Waterdeep. Since his passing, it has ballooned as a number of noble families tried to pick up the tradition.

The Highcoin Balls begin after sundown on the heels of the ceremonies of Umberlee’s Cache and are considered a necessity for nobility intending to be on the scene that season. Those who missed it became an afterthought for the rest of the year and it’s not unusual for guests to wander from one party to the next.

Highcoin marks the formal start to @JournalEntry[xrtWmFr64SQivPSv]{the ten-day festival of Waukeentide} and during the balls, offerings are amassed for the Day of Spheres on the 10th of Tarsakh.