Questions for a child's first Low Tide, as taught in the canal schools of Seiran. The answers in plain type are the ones to learn. The notes in italics are for the teacher, or for a parent who has been asked a harder question than the book expected.
Before the night
1. What is Low Tide night?
It is the night of the lowest tide of the year, in early autumn, when the Ferry Guild rows all the year's lanterns out to the Markers.
The guild's reckoners name the night from their tide tables. It is announced on the morning itself, when a vermilion ribbon is hung from the eaves of East Landing. Children who live within sight of East Landing will tell the rest of the class before the teacher can.
2. Why do we have lanterns?
When someone in Seiran dies, a paper lantern appears, lit, at the window of the room where they slept, by the next morning. Nobody makes them.
Children will ask who does make them. The honest answer is that nobody knows, and that it has always been so. Some children find this frightening. Most find it interesting. Do not invent an answer. The book has never needed one.
3. Why do we keep the lantern all year?
Because until Low Tide, the person has not gone on. We keep their lantern in the room where it appeared, and we do not move it except to carry it down to the water.
Customs differ from canal to canal. In the north canals, families set a cup of tea beside the lantern on the first day of each spring. At the Salt Steps they leave the window open a hand's width, whatever the weather. A child whose family does neither may be told that keeping the lantern is the whole of the custom, and the rest is kindness.
4. Will the lantern burn things?
Do not touch it, and do not let paper touch it. The lanterns are no warmer than a candle to the hand, but ordinary paper laid against one will scorch.
This is why the racks at East Landing and on the ferries are lined with paper from the three lantern-making houses, which does not scorch. See question 10.
On the night
5. What happens on Low Tide night?
At dusk the guild closes the canals. Every family with a lantern carries it down to a landing. The ferrywomen load the lanterns onto the long flat ferries. When the tide begins to ebb, the sea gate opens and the ferries row out to the Markers. There the ebb takes the lanterns, and one by one they go out.
6. Who carries our lantern down?
Whoever slept nearest to the person whose lantern it is. If that is you, you carry it with both hands and walk slowly.
In practice, whoever can. A small child may carry it with a grown-up's hands round theirs. The guild has never once turned a lantern away because the wrong person brought it.
7. What do we say at the landing?
You say the person's name to the ferrywoman who takes the lantern, and she says it back to you. That is all.
She also says it to the guild clerk, who writes it in the year's ledger. A child who wants to see the name written down may ask, and will be shown.
8. Why are the canals closed?
Because on Low Tide night the canals belong to the ferries. The Ferry Guild has the right to close them from dusk until the last ferry comes home, so that the water is clear and nobody can follow.
9. Where should I stand?
On the sea wall either side of the sea gate, on the Long Steps above East Landing, or at your own window. Not on the ferries. The ferries are for the guild and the lanterns.
10. Why are there other lanterns on the canals?
Those are festival lanterns. The Oda, the Ren and the Sugi, the three lantern-making houses, make them for the canals, and living people hang them so that the way down to the water is lit.
Some children mix up the two kinds and are upset to see a festival lantern taken down in the morning. Explain gently that festival lanterns are for us, and the other kind are for the people we are letting go.
11. What do we eat?
Tide cakes: rice cakes pressed in a shell mould and salted. Eat one on the wall while you wait. Save one for the morning.
12. Can I hear the Markers?
Each Marker has a small iron bell on top. On a still night you can hear them from the wall, very faintly, when the ferries pass close and the wash rocks the posts.
Children always say they heard the bells. Let them.
After the night
13. What does it mean when a lantern goes out?
It means the person has gone on.
Children will ask, "Gone on where?" The guild's answer, which is very old, is: "On." Teachers whose families say more may say more. The book does not.
14. What if our lantern doesn't go out?
Every lantern goes out in its own time. The guild rows them out, and the tide does the rest.
This question comes up every year, usually from a child who has noticed that the ferries are slow coming home. The answer above is the book's answer. A child who keeps asking should be sent to East Landing on the morning after Low Tide, where Old Mother Sabe answers questions, briefly.
15. What do we do in the morning?
The window where the lantern stood is left empty for one day. After that you may put a plant there, or a cup, or nothing at all.
Most families put a plant. Nobody has ever been able to say why, and nobody minds.
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