Festival of Dreams

Gate Pass has its share of holidays; the most prominent is the Festival of Dreams, a holy day observed by all of the city’s major temples on New Year’s Day. Parades march from either end of the city, stopping at the grand square on Summer’s Bluff just before sunset for a ceremony in which eight high priests “offer up the dreams of the people.”

Each citizen is encouraged to write a prayer or hope on a slip of paper and place it in a small clay urn, which the city produces by the thousands every year. People deliver their urns to Summer’s Bluff in the days leading up to the festival. During the festival, each high priest chooses one urn, breaks it open, reads the prayer held within, and pledges to fulfill that dream if possible during the next year. Selfish requests are frowned upon, and often the city takes great glee in perverting the words of selfish prayers, fulfilling the adage “be careful what you wish for.” It is also considered to be a bad omen if none of the eight wishes selected is a wish for spring to come.

The rest of the urns are left in the centre of the square, and citizens are encouraged to pick one up and try to fulfill someone else’s wish. The morning after the festival, those left unopened are carted en masse to the countless small caves that dot the cliffs around the city, where they are buried. Many folk tales involve stories of these buried dreams coming to life and bringing good fortune, though most adults of the city view these as merely superstition.