Urchin Summer Festival
In the heights of summer, with the sun beating down on the land, and the crops of the big folk growing in the fields, rain awakens swarms of locusts. The first part, the rain, is welcomed by the big folk, but not the second. Locust swarms arise to feed on the all-important grains, making them unwelcome. To the urchins, though, the locusts provide the opportunity to harvest an important food source for them. In doing so, they not only feed themselves but also protect the grains of the big folk.
The urchins treat this harvesting, this hunt, of locusts as a time to celebrate. This celebration is not a specific day or date on the calendar as it is an impromptu one - after the first rainstorm of the summer season that awakens the locusts.
North of the City of Gaithewaite are many farm fields, mostly human farms, where grains are grown in vast fields. After First rain, as the urchins call it, the smalfolk leave the city en masse to head out to the fields to hunt the locusts. The entire Gaithewaite Rabble, every last burrow of urchins, evacuates the city for the rolling hills and fields like an army heading to battle, with nets large and small, spears to gather the swam and baskets to collect them. They have competitions like largest individual locust caught and most locusts caught - measured by weight.
Urchins heading to the fields for the great locust hunt.
Urchin Insect Consumption
Insects are generally considered disgusting to most civilized people, but to the urchins they are an important food source, even a delicacy. Their most common insects to eat are crickets and grasshoppers, including locusts, and beetles. They prepare them in various ways, including boiling, toasting, frying, and sun-drying or even raw, though dry roasted and tossed in oil with salt and herbs is popular. Insects with chitin are also dried and ad ground into flour. They will also eat pupae and larvae.
A hearty bowl of insects for a young urchin.
Cicada Hunting
An important occurrence for urchins is the cyclical spawning of cicadas. Since they do not spawn every year, the length between emerging being different for various cicada broods, when they do it is a reason for the urchins to celebrate.
There is one brood that is especially momentous, a brood of giant cicadas that only emerge every 48 years, which is often only once in an urchin’s lifetime. These cicadas grow to almost two feet in length, which makes them nearly the size of a three foot tall urchin. Brave and skilled urchin hunters head out to the meadows with spears and bows to go toe-to-toe with these enormous insects. Unlike gathering smaller, normal sized insects, hunting these giant cicadas is a dangerous affair - akin to a human hunting a boar or bear - and getting one, let alone multiple - is a feat to brag about.
