Wedding Feast Stew
The celebration after a Rol'nara Wedding Ceremony is centered around the Wedding Feast Stew, where families and friends symbolize the beauty and strength of the conjoining of families by sharing a stew created with ingredients provided by all wedding attendees. Each guests presents the Masters of Spoons with their ingredients as they arrive to celebrate the wedding and subsequent feast. The Masters of Spoons then prepare the ingredients and tend to the stew, tasting it prior to presenting the first full bowls to the newly-married couple, at which point the remaining guests help themselves. The stew itself is the centerpiece of the wedding celebration, and is accompanied by dancing, games, and other food items provided by the wedding couple for the enjoyment of their guests.
History
Before the success of The Portal Exchange the plane of Rol'na was rural, poor, and highly dependent upon the annual harvests. One year a series of particularly severe storms caused a plane-wide famine, and it was during this famine that a beloved member of a particularly destitute village was marrying her love and wished to celebrate with the entire village. The villagers decided to surprise their friend by cooking a large stew with the best of what they had harvested, and the resultant stew was so flavorful and filling that not only was everyone able to sate their appetites but the leftover stew sustained the village for the next several days. As a result the villagers continued to combine their resources to feed the entire town during the remainder of the famine and the story of The Flower Tamer's Wedding has become a legend passed down through the generations.
Today the Rol'nara celebrate with a Wedding Feast Stew as a symbol of their diversity and solidarity, and their history of survival against adversity.
Components and tools
Each Wedding Stew is unique, depending upon the ingredients provided by the guests. The stews typically include vegetables, meats, and spices. Since Rol'na is such an important hub to worldwide travel and commerce the stews tend to contain a wide array of ingredients from around FIllimet in addition to locally sourced items.
Participants
Attendees are selected by the betrothed couple with some input from their families. Typical celebrations include friends and extended family, with some including influential cultural or political leaders held in high regard by the couple. All celebration attendees are responsible for providing ingredients to add to the stew, while the Masters of Spoons prepare the ingredients and monitor the stew.
Observance
This is a tradition upheld by most Rol'nara couples as the central point of their wedding feast. Some families also use variations on the Wedding Feast Stew to celebrate important anniversaries or life accomplishments.
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