This is a particularly important festival for SS Vulcania passengers who have joined the ship on her maiden, Trans Lemurian cruise and who will be looking to harvest a rich crop of work by the end of their voyage.
The Festival of Sementivae provides the opportunity to mark the full circle of birth, death and rebirth. During the Seed festival of Sementivae, Lemurians take the time to ponder the untamed forces of nature, the cycles of wild plants and animals. Here life and death is venerated. The Snake goddess, the great goddess of life continuum, presides over this festival. It is the Snake goddess who watches over birth, death and rebirth. It is she who is the creator, nurturer and the destroyer.
In a temple, in the Grove of Clementia there is a variety of ceramic forms, vases, figurines and ritual implements. These stand alongside forms made of stone, bone, antler and amber. The temple is cluttered, filled with an offering table, on which stand fertility figurines, musical instruments, vases, ceramic jars, all filled with seeds. Disproportionate, supernatural buttock on female figurines reveal their regenerative powers.
Masks hang on the wall waiting to be received by participants in the Seed Festival. These masks represent sacred animals and when worn they embody a fusion of animal and human forces. Some have bird beaks, snakes eyes, rams horns or pig snouts.
Sementivae Wikipedia
