Mettarë/Yestarë traditions
In NĂşmenor and Gondor (On AO3)
Today is the winter solstice, which corresponds to Yestarë, the first day of the year, in the King's Reckoning (Númenor and early Gondor calendar) and the Steward's Reckoning (later Gondor). In elven calendars, it usually falls in early spring or at the equinox instead.
Tolkien said little about it, except that the last and first day of the year, Mettarë and Yestarë, fall outside the calendar proper. I wanted to come up with some headcanons for the holiday for my fics.
Mettarë is the last day of the year, and as such, a day of closing and ending.
You are meant to finish as many ongoing projects and things as you can in the week leading up to it to be able to start fresh in the new year.
Mettarë is also the day for the worship of Mandos.
For Men, death is an end and a new start, and Mandos is the Judge and the Guardian of the Halls through which they must pass to go beyond the world. Mettarë is about closure, and remembering the dead and letting go of your grief.
If someone in the household died in the previous year, you spend Mettarë sorting through their possessions.
(personal items, mostly, clothes and such, whatever you can afford to keep untouched until Mettarë)
Then you put them all into the room where they slept (or a room you can associate with them, but it’s usually a bedroom. Depending on who mourns them, might be their childhood bedroom, or even their front door if they lived alone and you could afford to keep the rent up/not sell it until now, etc. If needed, it could be a room they’ve only been to once while travelling, or even a random closet or a cellar with their stuff in it in a pinch).
Usually people decorate the door somewhat, with dried flower wreaths and bouquets that they made in the summer for that purpose.
During the day of Mettarë, the household will also welcome in anyone who knew and loved the deceased, and the guests will bring either something of the deceased that they can afford to give away (or something that reminds them of them) or more dried flowers, maybe also dried fruit.
At nightfall, after all but the closest people have gone, they gather around the door and light a candle, which they put on the floor in front of the door (far away enough that all the dried flowers don’t catch fire, please, we’re trying not to burn down the house).
They say a prayer to Mandos in Quenya that goes something like “please Mandos, give them a second chance and call them again so that they might go beyond the world and be at peace” (but like, archaic).
That is because there’s a belief that on Mettarë, the doors of Mandos might open just a fraction for all the people who didn’t answer the call the first time, and Mandos will call them again.
This is derived from various elven beliefs and traditions, but Men go through Mandos too on their way outside the world, and it’s unclear whether they can miss the Call or not, so better be safe. In any case, that’s how it coalesced in Mannish beliefs.
Then they open the door just a fraction, and they will leave it like this until dawn, with no one going in or out.
(if someone else usually sleeps in that room, they might relocate for the night, but this is why you wouldn’t normally use a kitchen or a living room)
If the candle is snuffed out quickly by a draft, it is believed that this might be the fëa of the dead finally answering the call and going through the crack of the door. If it’s not, they already answered the call, or they never will.
The candle, while it is there to call the loved one’s fëa and light the way, is really more symbolic and also a bit of a hazard, so you don’t leave it burning all night.
It’s not really done to snuff out the dead’s candle, of course, so you should select a candle that will only burn for a couple hours at most.
In third age Gondor, candles that burn for exactly two hours are sold for that purpose, sometimes decorated with flowers, but most people will just use the end of a regular candle.
Often families will reminisce about the dead loved one while the candle burns.
In the morning, on Yestarë, the first day of the year, the family takes down the decorations and opens the door wide.
They bring out all the possessions of the deceased, which they sorted through and stacked in the previous day, and they start handing them out.
Usually anyone who was close to the deceased will take one personal item that belonged to them, so various people will come in through the morning to pay their respects and take an object.
It’s mostly the same people who came the previous day, and left things of the deceased in the room, so a lot of them will just take the same thing back, but they might leave “theirs” and take something else. The family/spouse/children/whatever still normally gets final say over who gets what if there are disagreements, but it’s very bad form to argue over this. Usually they’ve mostly agreed on it the previous day.
People symbolically take one thing but of course, if there is a need, someone might get the deceased’s entire wardrobe or whatever, this is a day of charity.
Then anything left is taken to be donated to people who need it. Large official building (city hall, feast halls, the lord’s reception room, etc) will be turned into a donation space on Yestarë afternoon, where you can bring things to donate and people who need it can receive them.
If you haven’t lost someone during the year, you can still honour Mandos and the dead on Mettarë.
It’s a good day to go through your own stuff and pile up what you no longer need and can donate.
A lot of families will still decorate a door and go through the ceremony, for any fëa that doesn’t have anyone to do it for them. Over the years though, it’s become more and more symbolic and ritualistic, rather than meaningful.
Dried flowers are still popular for the door, but so are other things, like death imagery: various objects decorated with skeletons or skulls, depictions of Mandos and his Halls, and also depictions of Valinor, because death and Valinor have coalesced together somewhat in the minds of Men.
Mettarë door ornaments are a flowering market in the weeks leading up to it.
Those without a loved one to mourn usually don’t light a candle, but they might also add something in the shape/likeness of a candle on the door.
Then on Yestarë morning, people exchange small gifts. You’re supposed to give your loved ones something of yours that you picked the previous day, but many people make or buy new things instead.
It should still be small, inexpensive gifts.
Then in the afternoon, families go to the donation spaces and bring anything they no longer need to donate. Everyone gathers, and it’s a time of collective enjoyment and celebration of the new year.
But there are no drinks or food while the donations are ongoing, out of respect for those who are in mourning.
Usually the local lord (or king) will preside over the donations. If he’s a good lord, he will donate more than anyone else and make sure that the poorest people get everything they need.
Then a large buffet is served, at which everyone, regardless of class, is invited.
In some places, there is a dinner and feast specifically for the court, but the lord is supposed to provide for everybody on Yestarë night, so there will still be a free meal for the lower classes.
In terms of dress code, you can dress up on Mettarë but keep it sober, with little jewellery or bling.
You should also do your hair in the simplest way possible. If it’s long, it should be in a simple plait.
This is derived from the First Age Noldor tradition of braiding the hair of the dead in a single plait as part of the funeral customs, so that they might not be too attached to their body and refuse the call of Mandos.
That’s of course a very Noldorin belief, but it spread to Númenor (probably through Elros, but perhaps also from those who came from Thargelion and Nargothrond) and they’ve kept it up, though they no longer remember the cause.
On Yestarë, you can go all out and dress in your best clothes.
Food is also very simple on Mettarë, with no drinking allowed. On Yestarë, fast is broken at dawn with a large breakfast, but made only of plants and dairy, no meat. Then a large animal (or more depending on the size of the town or place) is slaughtered in the morning and roasted in public for the feast.
The actual dishes vary depending on the area, and change dramatically in Fourth Age Gondor, when the start of the year is moved to the spring.
Yestarë isn’t really a food-based festival though (unlike, say, the harvest festival) so it’s mostly going to be large, filling dishes rather than delicacies.
Note: none of this is canon. I meant to write more details and stories involving actual characters, but I also wanted to post it today, so. Feel free to use it in fic if you want! (and please tell me if you do!)
