On the day Morgoth stole the silmarils, the Valar and elves of Valinor were celebrating this festival, and it’s said that Manwe thanked Iluvatar for the harvest, and all the elves celebrated with music. HARVEST FESTIVALS: There are a few versions of harvest festivals celebrated throughout Middle Earth, and most of them don’t have names that we know of.Interestingly enough, there’s no record of this day being celebrated in the Shire. It fell in late September, on Frodo’s birthday, and it was made a festival to celebrate the start of the War of the Ring, essentially. Comare: Also called Ring-day, this was another holiday established in Gondor during Aragorn’s rule.There was lots of feasting, a special market was held, as well as the election for the Mayor of Michael Delving. In the Shire, Midsummer was celebrated in a three or four day festival called Lithe. How Loende was celebrated in Gondor is unknown, but in Numenor the day was also called Erulaitale (“Praise of Eru”), and was one of the three days that the king would make a prayer and (bloodless) offering to Iluvatar on the top of Mount Meneltarma. The elves of Gondolin called it Tarnin Austa (“passage into summer”), and celebrated it with a “solemn ceremony at midnight, and no voice was uttered in the city from midnight until the break of day, but the dawn they hailed with ancient songs.” In the calendars of Numenor (and, by extension, Gondor and Arnor) Midsummer was called Loende. MIDSUMMER: This holiday had variations in a few different cultures, and was referred to by different names.Nost-na-Lothion: Described as the “Birth of Flowers”, this festival was known to be celebrated by the elves of Gondolin, and most likely ocurred in the beginning of May.This was to celebrate Sam’s birthday as well as the first time the Golden Tree flowered. In the Shire, it’s said that the hobbits would always feast and dance in the Party Field in early April. So the Gondorian new year’s festival would have taken place in spring, like the elves’. For the men of Gondor, the beginning of spring (for them, this fell around late March) was called Tuilere (how exactly the day was celebrated is unknown.) After the War of the Ring, Aragorn reworked Gondor’s calendar so that the year began on the equivalent of March 25, the day of Sauron’s defeat. In Numenor, the spring festival was called Erukyerme (“Prayer to Eru”), and was one of the three days that the king would make a prayer and a (bloodless) offering to Iluvatar on the top of Mount Meneltarma. There aren’t any details about how the new year was celebrated, but we know that there are two days set aside on the calendar for the even: Mettare, the last day of the year, and Yestare, the first day of the year. ![]()
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