Republic Owl / Pecпyбликa Филин / République Hibou / 共和国 ワシミミズク
Day of souls and ghosts

Taking place in the middle of fall, and at the last day of month 10, it is an official holiday practiced universally in the Republic.
This celebration consists of multiple activities depending on region and local custom, but all of these have consistence among them, these being the following.
First is the visitation of cemeteries and organization of festivals in these guided by the local graveyard keeper, people will go on to visit the graves of their loved ones and ancestors, along with various offerings, these offerings often vary, from a thing that the deceased loved to a potato or turnip dish, less commonly, an entire bottle of beer may be left alongside a person's grave if they had died young or were known to have a love for alcohol. Objects of significant religious worth may be given if an afterlife is considered by the local temples.
The graveyard keeper often also recieves offerings, mainly food and alcohol, weaponry and tools are also given to aid in the defense duties of the keeper, money, while discouraged due to traditions surrounding the graveyard keeper, is still accepted.
Second is the festival proper, often right besides the graveyards, the people will set up local shops and games around, commonly these shops are sweets and goods from the locality, cinnamon candy and pastries will often be given the shape of ghosts and creatures of national folklore such as chimeras and the jabberwock for more elaborate sweets. Caffeinated pastries one such notable product from these, often given the shape of yellow and red rodents.
Public games, such as singing and poetry competitions are done, contestants are encouraged to touch upon morbid themes with a humorous touch, and puppet plays are popular attraction of the events where puppeteers will recreate a mythological story to which they add their own personal touch and twists.
An interesting tradition that is presumed to have been inherited from deadbeat inmigrants is the use of pumpkins as decoration, as the weather allows for pumpkins to be planted everywhere the practice became relatively common, but losing some of its religious connotations, as a form of trying to keep in line with the homeland, they may ask the local graveyard keeper to light up the candles inside such pumpkins.
The tipical schedule these festivals follow are from 18:00 to midnight
The celebrations tipically vary from cities to towns, and from what the local temple practices. In cities, the celebrations are large events where they might extend out of the bounds of the cemetery and into the city proper, in small towns and rural areas however, multiple communities will often have a regional graveyard where they will have to travel to celebrate, thus, they tipically end before midnight.

The religious part of the celebrations are a lot more varied, especially due to the lack of belief in an afterlife sustained by various temples, if the local temple promotes the belief of an afterlife, it will tipically be in the form of the soulpath, the path that the dead take either to reincarnation or to a spiritual reintegration into the world, souls, however, need a guide, lest they be lost and unable to reach their goal. Owls generally take the place of guide, however, due to religious connection the Lady of Death, one of the mentors to the nameless one, is also represented as giving guidance to the souls on their path. Since the nameless one was also educated in the ways of the soulpath, she may also provide guidance to lost souls that fall behind the Lady of Death, wearing a white sheet made from cloth of the veil of the lady of death. Good actions may get you reincarnated, but not many temples observe a punishment in death from bad actions, instead simply being absorbed into the world.

Other places that do not consider the traditional soulpath instead do Ghost-Well. Where the dead may somehow be able to regain their sense of self from being absorbed into the ground and turned into ghosts, never really represented as malicious, the ghosts will play pranks and drink inmense amounts of ethanol until they are pacified and return to the world. Here the lady of Death and the nameless one will instead take the role of ghost hunters, along with the graveyard keeper who will prepare the grave for arrival.

The festivity changes plenty in cemeteries for those that died without family, for soldiers, and for those whose body was never recovered, graveyard keepers will instead make a single small wooden object and put it besides the grave for each and every grave they guard, visitors will come by and be given one of the wooden objects and take it home with them. The exact meaning of this tradition is not known, but it is fiercely protected by graveyard keepers against temples and others that ciriticize its role in the festivities. As graveyard keepers have a very real and powerful legal status, they can decide how certain celebrations may take place and interrupt temples who they deem as too intrusive.

Once the festivities are over, the graveyard keeper will clean the cemetery and collect food that may have been left, most of the food will be donated to groups of people that need it. Along with whatever the graveyard keeper decides to keep for himself.