Invent an old village ritual.

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Every old medieval village has one.

Rules: It has got to be pointless.

On the 10th of April, every third year, the village gathers together in the central square, bringing with them their most prized roosters and largest rakes, whereupon the birds are agitated into frantic and deafening "cock-a-doodle-doo"s by a menacing waving of rakes, in order to drive away evil spirits, ghastly haunts, and bog-demons.

The good people of Thromberg pass through the village gates with their eye closed.

Why? Because they have always done it that way!

They gathered around the well, and started yodeling some old runes. They had been carved into the well long before the town had been settled, but after it had been carved, a prankster came along and added more instructions to a tablet he left on the ground. The instructions were to spin around the well until dizziness was fully achieved, and yodel in your worst song voice. It is believed by the villagers that the runes and tablet were both left by ancestors. And they are very incorrect.

In the village of Anlykirk, an unusual ritual is had, called the Hildafrit. To begin describing it, you must start with the history of the feast.

Anlykirk is a village just north of Hanton. Hanton was the site where Olav of the Stones (Anlaf of Hann) established his stake after conquering a Mercian village and taking the women and stock as his. During the first winter, he lost some stock but no one could say how much was lost. His search for a clark led him to an old woman of the name Hilda of Askill. Hilda offered her services as an accountant if only her Saxon heritage was allowed to be practiced. This was granted and so she bilt a small hut up the hill from Hanton. This hut was known was Askilham, where Hilda of Askill practiced her pagan rituals. Now, the Irish monks saw this as an affront to their successful conversions of the Norse settlers. The Irish monks travelled south to the village of Hatwynd and summoned a force of pious rioters to sack Askilham. Askilham was successfully besieged and burnt to the ground, along with Hilda.

The Irish monks appealed to Olaf to allow them to build a monastery at the site of Askilham, which was granted. Anlykirk was built in honour of Olaf.

With that history of Anlykirk, there was always the suspicion of the ghost of Hilda haunted the monastery and the village that came to accompany it. To appease the sensibilities of Hilda and to not let bring bad omens to the monastery, they would lead a cow adorned with a kettle through the village and monastery.

In the English Civil War, the monastery was sacked and ruined and the villagers lost all their cattle. Condemned to poverty for the next few decades, but still fearful of the ghost of Hilda, they continued carrying their kettle around the village on the anniversary of the sack of Askilham, July 19th.

During the Industrial Revolution, a couple mills opened up in Anlykirk and brought new wealth into the village. The mayor was soon able to purchase a gold-plated kettle to carry out the Hildafrit. At the turn of the century, the kettle was stolen.

Currently, the Hildafrit is carried out by a walk of every villager through every street with a stick of incense on July 19th.