Each year, the Korso celebrate the renewal of the world through the Winterspring Dawn: a local festival reflecting on one's acomplishment and faulters throughtout the year. A particular focus is put on Alurizan youth, who are still learning how to find where they truly belong. However, they are never alone in this task. 

 

The Winterspring Dawn is a holiday celebrating the importance of family; past, present and future. Youngsters are the main focus of the festivities, as they are the future stewards of Owai-6. Many of the activites focus on instilling a sense of responsibility and self-sufficiency. 

 

While Korso culture emphasizes sweet, rich berry pies, early spring brings a dearth of both pantry goods and sweet, fat local berries. While a new cultivar of cold-hardy, early season Ru berry is available in abundance, traditional Korso treats for late winter and early spring focused on what dried goods were left after winter, and a selection of the wheat, berries, fats and seeds they had stored, leading to the creation of small, practical, seed-filled cakes for celebrations in leaner times. These sweets persisted into the modern era, especially since they allow the locals to avoid competing with animals readying to expand their own families, leaving a great portion of the berries and tender greens to nature until the abundance is great enough to indulge.

Still, early spring foraging was an unavoidable reality for the Korso of the distant past. Roots and tubers from plants stripped down by the local Merini were brought back and roasted, turned into a bitter drink rich in nutrients and excellent for staving off malnutrition. These roots are still harvested today, made into unsweetened, bitter drinks still given to children with the intention of helping them grow up healthy.

 

The first visitors to a Korso home after the New Year celebration are expected to bring children gifts to symbolize a prosperous future! While more modern gifts may include small toys or treats, those more steeped in tradition offer dried spices and personal effects like gardening tools or practical clothes- much to the dismay of the children on the steppes. While some may cry this is "out of touch.", every Korso adult knows well-made and cared-for items last a lifetime or longer. 

 

All Korso homes have a special altar that houses all family members' Psi'ttashes, typically set in a bay window similar to a greenhouse space. Children are expected to help care for the plants year-round, with adults helping with the more delicate tasks for all of the plants, and children helping mind the watering and fertilizer with supervision. When the Winterspring Dawn approaches, Korso clean inside and outside alike, preparing fields for the new year's planting and pantries and cellars for the new forage. Out on the plains, Korso create and fly colorful, narrow flags that have the family's shared accomplishments and failures from past years woven into them, with most flags representing a single year. When retired, these are often incorporated into everyday pieces such as quilts and wall hangings. The Korso once carried these with them as they migrated across the plains to use as bedding, but living a more sedentary life they are now mostly used for keeping warm-- covering drafts in the winter on walls and tucked over lighterweight summer blankets in the winter.

 

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On the Zae'ka Steppes, where the wind is alive, most buildings' doors and shutters are left open unless there's a storm, and the doors are wide enough for multiple people to pass through at once. This is good, because Korso and other folk are milling about the doors to the rounded, hive-shaped building like a colony of bees, and you don't move with the confidence and familiarity of many of the others here.

Shoulders bump, and people pause for a moment with a friendly "Oop!", sometimes followed by a trailing "Sorry!" as they walk away, still half-facing you as they do. You follow the tide of other people, looking around, overwhelmed at the building inside, festooned with strings of suspended banners gaily fluttering above as people approach glass-front cabinets with rows of goods and materials.

You find yourself inhaling as a small eddy of rich, nutty aroma from an opened bakery cabinet floats past you-- you've found yourself to the end of a line, and a Korso with an alien baby on their back busily swaps stock in one shelf, then the next.

"First time here?" another Korso pipes up cheerfully. "You'll want to talk to Uncle Bitters, he's... right over there." You follow the direction of a flourished hand, leading to the older Korso with the baby in the back sling, who turns at the gesture, almost as if he had eyes on the back of his head.

"That'd be me," he says, stepping forward. "Has anyone matched you with a guide yet? You get your floche key?" He huffs a little as you shake your head, then looks at the Korso beside you. "Rue, be a dear and get this one a key and something hearty. They're early enough to help with setup, so get them oriented, and oh-- right.

"Welcome to my shop-- everyone who helps another out is family here."

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