Harvesttide festival

The Harvesttide festival is an ancient harvest festival on Innistrad. It is an ancient custom, that hasn't been performed for centuries. It used to be an annual celebration of life and community in the years before the Church of Avacyn. On a world where survival is never a guarantee, life is to be celebrated. Villagers commemorated the yearly Harvesttide with week long feasting, dancing, songs, chants, mask-wearing, bonfires, and wicker effigies. The Ulvenwald's trees glimmer with candles, lanterns, and magical spark-lights. Streamers and ribbons decorate the branches. Travelers along the paths toward Harvesttide can also see wicker "floats" with effigies of werewolves, zombies, vampires, and other fearsome creatures, to be triumphantly and defiantly burned during the festival.

When the sun began rising later and setting sooner each day because of the Eldrazi in the moon, the werewolves went mad and tried to take control of the plane. Fearing the eternal night, the citizens turned to the warlocks of the Dawnhart Coven for help. The leader of the coven, Katilda, proposed to revive the festival. By gathering together as many people as possible, the coven could draw on their collective strength beneath the Celestus and restore the balance through a ritual. According to Katilda the dawn couldn't be brought back without bringing back the hope that the people had lost.

The elected autumn queen of the festival was Leinore.

However, Tovolar's howlpack disturbed the festival. Brimming with power from their disrupted ritual, the Dawnhart witches lashed out at the werewolf intruders.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Sunset Revelry

Associated cards:

• Dawnhart Rejuvenator
• Festival Crasher
• Leinore, Autumn Sovereign
• Ritual Guardian

Depicted in:

• Join the Dance
• Might of the Old Ways

Referred to:

• Homestead Courage
• Stormrider Spirit