The Fesitval of Dionysus

This festival is always held between the last day of Octembus and the first day of Novembus (and so can, in effect, be considered the 26th of Octemnbus).

The Church of the Twelve has denoted that this day be a festival of happiness, and even excess, as a 'reward' for all of the hard work ensuring another successful harvest and it has long been one of the most popular festivals in the calendar. For workers it is a mandatory time to relax, for businesses it is a time to get rid of old wine and beer stock before the winter and for petty thieves it's a time to take advantage of the many, many drunk citizens in the towns and cities of the Empire.

The big problems with this festival are as follows:

1. Not everyone follows the Twelve and so their beliefs need to be catered for

2. The amount of minor vandalism that occurs is expensive for towns and cities to repair

3. The city and town watches usually can't cope with the increase in crime during the festival

Over the centuries then the following 'solutions' have been devised:

• Every town and city will have an area that is designated a "festival free zone" that is to be respected as being 'out of bounds'. This, to a certain extent, works but many people are reticent to leave their homes to stay in a 'quarantine' area for 24 hours just because the rest of the town can't be relied upon to be civil.
• Every inn, tavern and brewery that participates pays an additional 'festival tax', paid in monthly instalments, during the year leading up to the festival. Of course the people running these business always say that it's not their fault that people eat and drink to excess during this festival - they are just reacting to demand - and so respond by increasing their prices during the festival itself.
• As members of the Watch are also worshippers of the Twelve they frequently don't attend work during the festival, leading to an even bigger strain on the law-enforcement personnel. So much so that most locations declare a general 'amnesty'. Under this, people committing low-level crimes (being disorderly, vomiting, vandalism, minor theft (pick pocketing), and similar will not be charged, fined or put in jail for the 24 hours of the festival. More serious crimes (violent assault and murder) are still against the law and the Church has agreed to use it's divination magic to ensure that people committing such offences during this time will be identified and brought to justice.

So, what does this all mean?

Well, it means that the festival is ludicrously expensive, those not participating don't leave their houses (and hire extra guards) and the streets are effectively lawless for the 24 hours. It's not 'the Purge' but it's not the normal civilised society either.