Festival of Fresh Waters

The Festival of Fresh Waters was a week-long festival held in the Second City, which celebrates an incident around the year 1188, when the Second City, still largely under construction at that time, was attacked by insurgents from the Cult of Ruhmal. The fighting lasted three days, during which time the river immediately west of the Second City was contaminated by blood and corpses. It took an additional three days after the battle was over before shugenja declared that the river was safe to drink once again. This was the occasion of the actual sanctity of the river itself. The Festival had a great deal of rituals involving the purification of water, and there were numerous ceremonies concerning the river and other sources of water.