Birthdays
Evines celebrate the growth of their children every year until they reach adulthood. Once an evine reaches adulthood, celebrations become less common, typically occurring every 5 or even 10 years.
Birthdays are typically celebrated with a group meal; the loved ones of the celebrating evine will cook them their favorite food (or foods). There is no specific food associated with birthdays, so birthday meals could be sweet or savory.
Evines value handmade gifts and crafts very highly. It is rare that an evine will give a purchased gift; instead those closest to the celebrating evine will often give them handmade (or found) gifts relevant to their interests.
Bonding Ceremonies
Not all evines who choose to mate for life undergo a bonding ceremony. The ceremony is strictly symbolic and does not hold any "legal" or even "moral" repercussions. Thread-bonds between lovers form naturally over time, not as a result of the bonding ceremony.
Bonding ceremonies are typically organized by the bonded couple and involve close friends and the family of the couple. They are small affairs which take place outside, weather permitting.
Ceremonies typically follow this pattern:
- Hand-written vows are exchanged (read aloud) between partners. This exchange is typically lead by the mother of each evine.
- After vows are exchanged, evines hand fast to symbolize the thread-bonds of the couple. Hand fasting involves the mothers of each evine wrapping one hand of each bonded evine together using thread (or ribbon) in that evine's thread color. For example, one person's left hand might be bound to the other person's right hand. Hand fasting binds are not intended to be tight: they are comfortable and easy to remove. Each evine's mother is responsible for obtaining the thread/ribbon for their child. Hand fasting will always take place with at least two ribbons (one for each evine).
- Evines without parents will often have the ceremony performed by close friends or a parental figure.
- Most evines know their thread colors by adulthood either through thread-seers or the nature of their magics, but in the event an evine doesn't know they will seek the assistance of a thread-seer prior to the ceremony.
- Evines with multiple thread colors will typically use ribbon that represents all of their (combined) colors. It may be a single, multi-color ribbon, or multiple ribbons for each color.
- The ceremony continues with a large meal during which the bonded evines remain hand-fasted. Usually all participants will bring food, but the ultimately the couple is reponsible for ensuring enough food is available for everyone.
- Following the meal, the couple will return to their home while hand-fasted. Once home, the couple will remove the ribbons together and each evine will keep their partner's ribbon for the rest of their lives. Bonded ribbons are usually (but not always) kept on the evine's person. They may be worn as hair accessories, made into bracelets/necklaces, tied around limbs, or merely kept folded in pockets or bags.
- Any meal leftovers or decorations are cleaned up by all attendees after the couple departs.
- It is considered polite to 'leave the couple alone' for at least three days following their ceremony. There is no expectation for mating during this time as evines do not wait for bonding ceremonies to mate. However, mating is still very common during this period given that the ceremony ends with several days of uninterrupted alone time.