Midwinter Masque
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In Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Legacy series, the Midwinter Masque is a grand celebration held on the winter solstice or Longest Night. It celebrates the passing of the year and the return of the sun. The new year is toasted with a drink called joie, a clear, heady liquor distilled from a white mountain flower, likely akin to champagne. All celebrations are maquerades with themes that are often taken from nature or history. They all also include a play where the Winter Queen enters as an old, withered, hobbling crone; her arrival marking the beginning of the festivities. When the horologists cry the hour of the sun's return, the Sun Prince appears and, in a great spectacle, frees the Winter Queen from her mask and reveals a beautiful young woman who welcomes the return of the sun and spring.
The Court of Night-Blooming Flowers has its own celebration, hosted by Cereus House. On this night, only Servants of Naamah and patrons who hold the token of Naamah (a gift given at the Dowayne's discretion) are allowed to attend. In this version, the Winter Queen is always chosen from the adepts of Cereus House and is restored to youth by the Sun Prince, who is selected from any of the Thirteen Houses of the Night Court. Superstition holds that the Sun Prince will bring a year's luck to his House. The Winter Crone's mask is held to have been created four hundred years before the events of the Kushiel's Dart, by Olivier the Oblique.
The first year Phèdre witnesses the Midwinter Masque, the Winter Queen is portrayed by Cereus adept Suriah, and the Sun Prince is played by Prince Baudoin de Trevalion. This action is viewed by many as a symbolic indication of Baudoin's right to rule, and his intentions to wed the Dauphine Ysandre de la Courcel and thereby become the King of Terre d'Ange. At the Masque, Baudoin is given joie by Phèdre. He kisses her and names her "joybearer",; Phèdre will later consider that she only brought him ill luck.
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