Delic Culture

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Crafts


Deltarians have a very close relationship with their natural surroundings, which manifests itself in folk arts and crafts. All of these remain hand-made and therefore unique. Widely used elements in crafts are wood, hay and cornhusks. These materials are often used for building traditional Deltarian houses among the peasants. Deltarians are known to build figures out of hay and straws to represent the Gods and Goddesses of nature. Smaller versions are a most popular crafts activity among young Deltarian girls who spend their afternoons making small cornhusk figures. These figures often represent the Deltarian way of life, namely the life of a simple peasant. The gender roles in Deltársko are strictly traditional and divided between the man and the woman. Both man and woman work on the field and take care of animals, however only the men work and women are required to fulfill their maternity roles as mothers and housewives. In Delarian culture, raising children and being there for them is an important issue. A working mother is considered a bad mother who abandons her children. And that is why these roles have infiltrated into the most common motifs in crafts and arts, which include the peasant girl with rakes, the peasant girl with hay or the peasant boy with a scythe.

A widely popular activity during Deltarian Easter is decorating Easter eggs. Every girl has to be prepared for Easter Monday in advance by painting and decorating eggs with wax, colours or straws. Many of these are unique crafts symbols.

Painting


Many picturesque landscapes together with how they are shaped by the hand of the Deltarian man are reflected in paintings. The hardship, struggling with the often hard natural conditions, work on the field and above all simple life have influenced the air brush of every artist. All these things are imprinted in the souls of every Deltarian and the goal of art is to potray exactly these virtues, this hard work as salvation and triumph over a vain or unfulfilling life.

Music and Dance
The art of voice and movement often accompany daily activities of the Deltarian people. Often, they assemble on the fields, the men to cut the grass and the women to rake and dry it. It is believed that singing makes the hard work more pleasant and so women are often heard on the fields, singing their songs of their loved ones. Folk instruments include the Deljara (a huge shepherd's flute), bagpipes which are usually played solo. Folk groups typicaly consist of violins, double bass and cymbalum, performing various genres of usually dance music in villages or pubs.

While the peasants prefer the singing, the Deltarian nobles often entertain themselves by music in concert halls or dance halls of the major Deltarian cities.


 * Ehey Uchnem, the Czárist national anthem.
 * Katyusha, folk song of the Dynastic era.
 * Dorogoi Dlinnayu, a fatalistic lament on the passing of youth.
 * Cossacks Song, music of the Suislaw cossacks.
 * Kalinka Malinka, Deltarian love song (instrumental).

Language
The major Deltarian languages are: Daralian, Alazindian, Dissuwan, Doron and Tokundi and belong to the Western Majatra language group. They have evolved from Proto-Deltarian in the course of history together with the respective Deltarian tribes. The official language in Czárske Deltársko is Daralian, the oldest language developed out of Proto-Deltarian written in runes, widely spoken in the Darali region. Alazindian is the closest language related to Daralian and the easiest to understand between the people of these two regions, especially due to the close relations in the past. The next closely related language is Tokundi of the Tokundian tribe which lived in Deltaria in the past and later moved to Cobura. Nowadays the Tokundians are the largest minority and Tokundi is spoken in Alazinder and Darali. Doron, a more noble sounding dialect in the far west, even infiltrated new letters into its alphabet possibly due to its higher literacy rate. As a visitor you would be surprised at the difference between these and the Dissuwan, quite unpleasant sounding dialect, in the far east of the country.

Special characters used in Deltarian languages include:
 * Vowels: á ä é í ó ý ú (Daralian, Alazindian, Tokundi), å æ ø (Doron)
 * Diphthongs: ia, ie, iu, ô (Daralian)
 * Consonants: č ď dz dž ch ľ ĺ ň ŕ š ť ž (Daralian, Alazindian, Tokundi)

Language also gave rise to literature. However, there are not many written scripts among the common Deltarian folk. Stories, folk tales and legends are passed on orally, mainly by Deltarian women. It is customary for babkas, mothers and daughters to sit down together in circles to pluck feathers while telling beautiful or sometimes mysterious stories.

If you are lucky enough to be allowed to enter this beautiful country, you will find the list of the Deltarian Phrases to be very useful in every day life situations.

Sports


The Deltarian tradition of Bear Baiting dates from before the time of the Thanes. Although lauded by the international community as cruel and inhumane, bear baiting retains widespread popularity throughout most of Deltaria. The sport involves setting two or three of the world-famous Deltarian Mastiffs, the former national animal, against a chained grizzly bear, and wagering on the results. Events are televised and broadcast nationally, with a Deltarian Tournament where the best-known dog and bear trainers compete. In the past, efforts to ban the sport by Deltarian and international activists have been largely unsuccessful in the face of its overwhelming popularity. It remains the most popular sport among Deltarians, and many wonder why it is not accepted into the Olympic Games.

Education
"When most nations refer to their dark ages, they refer to periods hundreds of years ago. When somebody mentions the Deltarian dark age, they mean today, yesterday and tomorrow." - Dr. Saluman Jafaar, Majatran historian

Cuisine
"A hungry population is better than a sober population" - Grófka Kvetoslava Nádašdyová, former Deltarian Minister of Agriculture.

An often condemned aspect of Deltarian peasant life is the constant famines, sometimes deliberately manufactured by the Government. It is for this reason that there are many jokes made about Deltarian cuisine consisting of nothing but the drugs and alcohol the Government ensures a large supply of. It is estimated that the average Deltarian peasant manages to consume actual sustinance only once every two or three days, usually consisting of lentils, fish, goat, or horse meat. Deltarians are also known to eat insects, rats, leather, bread baked from tree bark and other inedible materials, and other such unappetising fare.

Because of these harsh conditions, the peasantry are known to indulge heavily in mindnumbing and appetite-supressing drugs when food is not available (and often when it is). Extremely strong rum is brewed from sugar cane, and sometimes steeped with opium to create the famous Deltarian laudenum, the closest thing the nation has to a 'National Dish'.

For the nobles, on the other hand, Deltarian cuisine is varied and delicious. Spicy lentil, meat and fish dishes are a common staple, along with delicious tropical fruits such as mango and pineapples, and many pickled meat dishes. Roast pork is one of the perenial favourites, with horse and goat meat being considered 'below' that of the noble class. Ethnicly Deltarian meals make up only a small percent of the nobles diet, however, as they often import exhorbitantly expensive foreign foods to serve at their lavish banquets and orgies.

The Welcoming of Spring
Fourteen days before Easter arrives on the Sunday of Death, the Deltarians celebrate the end of winter which was ruled by the pagan goddess Morena. Morena symbolizes winter, sickness and death. The peasants make a Morena doll out of hay straws and dress her in traditional folk clothes. This doll is then attached to a stick and lifted into the air. Usually girls carry her while singing to symbolize carrying Winter out of the village, followed by a large crowd of villagers. They all walk down the road towards the river. Here the Morena is set on fire and thrown into the water. As the peasants watch her get carried away by water and drowned, they are singing and welcoming the beginning of spring. Young girls collect flowers and make daisy chains or flower wreaths out of them. Sometimes they wear them on their heads or put them into the river to swim away.

Easter in Deltaria
Easter, or the Great Night, how the Deltarians refer to it, is the first holiday in spring and the typical symbols include the Easter bunny, the Easter chick, egg and whip.

Both men and women, boys and girls have to prepare for this holiday at least a week in advance. The boys go near rivers or brooks to look for willow trees. They cut off a few thin twigs, sit down and start braiding their own Easter whip. The girls spend their preparations baking cakes and decorating eggs. Every girl in the house collects them in their chicken coop, boils them and starts painting them with colours to give them varios patterns. These can sometimes be substituted or enriched with other techniques, like adding little hay straws or painting with hot wax.

On Easter Monday, when everything is ready, the boys have to wake up real early in the morning. They take their whips and go visit girls in groups. They love to surprise the girls in the morning, sometimes in bed, but sometimes the girls love to hide or be chased around the yard or garden. The boys either ask for or bring buckets of water and pour them on the girls. Then they start whipping their bare legs and behind with Easter whips, meanwhile the girls try to run, hide, squeal or giggle. Girls love Easter whips. Both of these acts have a deep traditional meaning so the girls are beautiful and healthy all year long.

When all girls in the house have been whipped, they offer Deltarian spirits and cakes to the boys. They give them one or two of their handmade Easter eggs and sometimes remove the ribbons from their braids and attach them at the end of the Easter whip of a boy. Naturally, as more boys come during the day, the girls have to change clothes several times. Afterwards everybody goes to church for a mass.

Traditional Deltarian Wedding
When a girl and a boy want to marry in Deltaria, they have to visit the houses of all their relatives weeks before and invite them personally. It is a polite act as they prefer personal contact, rather than sending invitations. Deltarians marry on Saturdays. Both families spend a lot of time baking cakes and making wedding preparations. The bride and the groom get ready early in the morning and then, the groom goes to the village of his bride with his whole family. And there a wooden gate is already waiting for him with the village boys asking him what he wants. And as he wants to take a girl from their village, he has to pay. So he offers a bottle of spirits. And the boys ask him if this girl is of such worth. And so he offers more, until they open the gate and let him in.

In the bride’s house, all of her family is already assembled waiting for the groom to come and take her hand. He knocks on her door and asks for an unmarried girl in said house. But first they send him a married one, so he has to reject. Then they send him another one whom he rejects too and has to keep insisting on his girl. Three is a lucky number in Deltaria. So finally, she comes out with a needle and a white thread and sews a small flower onto his wedding suit with everyone watching. Afterwards him and his parents get invited in and meet with the parents of the bride. Both bride and groom kneel and get a blessing from their parents and grandparents. Both families set off on their way to church on foot. There the Deltarian priest marries them during a holy mass, they exchange rings and kiss.

Everyone walks out of church and bride and groom register their marriage at the council. The wedding guests then walk to the wedding celebration. Upon entering somebody smashes a plate onto the floor, as shards bring good luck. And the bride and groom have to prove their compatibility. The bride takes a broom and sweeps the shards and the groom helps her and picks them up. Then he picks her up and carries her to their seats. Both of them welcome the wedding guests and walk around clinking glasses with every single guest and drinking. A meal is served but the bride and groom have to drink from one large glass and eat from one large plate with just one spoon to prove their unity. The wedding dances start, playing traditional Deltarian music.



First is the dance of bride and groom where they dance together. Then all wedding guests surround them in circle and dance around them and two always with them. A chair with a hat is in the middle, where the guests throw money for their future children and house.

Later in the evening the bride’s friends or family kidnap her while the groom is not paying attention, that’s why he should guard her all night. They run off to a pub or a house and drink with her. The groom then has to spend a lot of time looking for his bride and the wedding celebration goes on without them. Eventually he finds her with the villains and returns.

At midnight their love is challenged. A group of peasants walks in and bride and groom have to dress in peasant clothes. At midnight they take the bride, place a large bowl in front of her and threaten to cut her head off with a large knife if she does not take off her wedding bonnet. But the bride refuses because she is loyal to her husband. And after she refuses three times, they give in. They get seated on two chairs and lifted into the air where they also clink glasses. Then the wedding continues all night with a lot of drinking, dancing and singing.