A ritual related to agriculture

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Straw Mothers

 

Considered by many as the last spirit of Kutsukku, Cailleach / Caillagh is the old woman of the land, the last surviving old god from before the occupation, before the lost histories. Today, she lives in the oats fields to the north of the city. During the last harvest of the season, she flees the workers and hides in the shrinking and shrinking fields. Workers will mark out the nicest patch of the grains to save for last, and at the end of the season, when the very last patch is cut, the family whose field it belonged to will not harvest this sheaf for food - instead they will weave this into the shape of a woman - the Straw Mother. This will hold Cailleach for the winter; the Doll often placed inside the barn with the stored harvest, to protect it from mice and other pests. However she is brought inside for the holidays, sitting at the place of honour inside the home to oversee the festivities. She is the responsibility of the oldest daughter when inside the home, and its up to the girl to return the Straw Mother to the barn when the home is next cleaned up. When next season's winter oats have grown about 6 inches, the Straw Mother is returned to the fields, buried in the soil so she can be free to return to the fields to be free to roam for the summer.

* While only one Straw Mother needs to be made, it is common for each family with farm lands to make their own vessel for Cailleach.

Other Mothers

When a daughter marries into a family outside the fields, her sisters or aunties will make her a Straw Mother so take with her, so that Cailleach may still come and visit her even if she leaves home. These dolls are often then set to watch over her children once they are born so that Cailleach can met them.

Forbflaith Ogilvie Broun- NicFergus

Representation & Legacy

When her mother moved to Kutzk, her grandmother made Ninsun a Straw Mother. The doll was inherited by the daughter who shared the crafter's namesake.
The Mother watched over her own children when they were born, Forbflaith hoping that the vessel could show her late mother and grandmother the children they would never get to meet.
In 1518, the city of Kutzk would be turned on its head when a violent upheaval shook the under-city. Forbflaith would come to recognize her own baby sister as one of the four crime bosses responsible. Forbflaith would hear rumors that she was leaving the island, and would seek her out.
She would never get to speak to her sister, but she was able to find the ship that was commissioned by the man her sister was preparing to run away with. Forbflaith would pay the shipwrights to hide a recently repaired Straw Mother in the walls of the ship's galley to watch over her sister.
Once the workers were sure the Mother was really nothing more than a straw woven doll, they did so, but only once Forbflaith promised them that this would not cause Cailleach to sail away with the crew.
Forbflaith never knew if Ciara found the doll or not, but after the terrible way they parted, she couldn't bare the thought of her sister leaving for the sea alone. She hoped the Straw Mother would allow their mother to watch over her sister and her new family.

It is believed that there was a spirit in this woven doll, and not just the late Ninsun; a woman named Doruyanaika or "Victoria" had been murdered in an action that would lead to the gang wars in the first place - a dear friend and former lover of Ciera. In the face of death, she followed her friends rather than moving on to her next life