Public holidays in Bujold

[filkferengi]

It's Veteran's Day here, which brings to mind the question: what public holidays would they have on different worlds Lois has written?

On Barrayar, with its default assumption of military service, would every day be Veteran's Day, or would there be some general public holidays, with appropriate booming accompaniment?

On Sergyar, they couldn't do Count's birthday [too close to Emperor's birthday], but might do some Founder's Day type of celebration.

One is tempted to think of Beta Colony having some sort of Scientist's Day, but once again you run into the default assumption of everyone being a scientist [or at least scientific & rational].

I could easily see Komarrans having individual dome founding celebrations, planetwide Founder celebrations, and teeth-gritting-reluctant Barrayaran celebrations. The language used by dome maintenance departments after obligatory fireworks would make a Barrayaran blush.

Escobar would definitely rock Veteran's Day, though, and remember with pride the day they stood up to--and fought off!--those Barrayaran bullies.

Thoughts? Discussion? Fireworks? Bueller?


P. S. Happy Veteran's Day! To all who have, do, or will serve, thanks for your service!

Comments

[reginagiraffe]

Gack! No fireworks in the domes! Exposives of any kind would be severely frowned upon.

Maybe a nice laser light show instead? Flower displays/competitions? Food festivals (with the most expensive/from farthest away winning)?

[filkferengi]

Judging by what we see out at Stone Mountain every summer, a laser show could be quite impressive; good idea! [Just don't forget to add in the 1812 Overture sound effects.]

[sraun]

For some reason, I've always assumed the domes were mostly / significantly transparent. In that case - do the fireworks outside! They won't care if they're going off in a thin toxic atmosphere! And I'd bet they could have something included in them that would actually help the terraforming, by whatever miniscule amount.

[reginagiraffe]

True!

And all that carbon could actually be a good thing!

[elf]

I tend to assume any colony planet could celebrate "Founder's Day;" that might the day of planetfall, or the day the first baby was born on the new world, or the day they got legal independence, or some other marker. Quaddies are likely to celebrate Freedom Day and whatever day they got legal recognition as sentient beings.

Not all of Barrayar is military, but the Vor caste is (or was, prior to the aptitude tests). They probably have a "we kicked the Cetagandans' asses out" day. (Victory Day?) And a "wormhole reestablished day." (End of Isolation? Galactic Day?) Might have a number of days related to wars/politics that happened during the Time of Isolation, some of which fall out of favor or are only celebrated in some provinces. I could easily imagine plenty of district-wide holidays that are unknown outside of a particular district.

For seasonal, rather than political holidays, there's Winterfair, and probably some type of harvest festival, and likely something in spring that celebrates "yay we survived another winter; last big party before the planting takes all our time." Could even have Easter and Halloween, either by those names or shifted over time.

Beta colony might have a Scientists' Day, honoring the science that lets them live in such a harsh environment. And a Womb-Freedom Day, for the invention of the uterine replicator. (Taught in pre-schools, along with the Good Sex Song.) Election Day might be a holiday of sorts; it could be a "business & gov't offices closed; get out and vote" day. And they could have something like "Diversity Day."

a "we kicked the Cetagandans' asses out" day

[filkferengi]

Maybe more than one. [weg]

Re: a "we kicked the Cetagandans' asses out" day

[elf]

Well, y'know... the days they were kicked out of each individual province, the day the final ship left, the day of the official declaration of end of war, and the day the last known Cetagandan left Barrayar.

Lots of "fuck you, Cetaganda" days on the Barrayaran holiday calendar.

Re: a "we kicked the Cetagandans' asses out" day

[filkferengi]

Combined with the "we gave them a taste of the Greeks" festivals in certain rural provinces.

[melannen]

Okay, now I'm kind of in love with the idea that somebody on Sergyar decided to try to establish the official founding celebration as the anniversary of Aral & Cordelia's first meeting, mostly just in order to embarrass them. :P

For some reason, I suspect the big "remembrance" holiday on Barrayar is not so much the victory over Cetaganda, but the anniversary of the start of the original invasion - the way the US remembers Pearl Harbor Day more than either of the WWII victory days. There's a certain amount of broken isolationist arrogance the two circumstances have in common, and the official start of the invasion would have been fiercely remembered through the whole war.

Komarr must have a day that is simultaneous a commemoration of the Barrayaran conquest and Solstice Massacre day, and it's probably incredibly politically fraught - it might oscillate between being banned and being mandatory.

I bet Beta Colony has a lot of historical birthdays celebrating democratic, military and scientific heroes (like the US's President's Day and MLK Day), and probably also a lot of state-declared holidays that aren't really celebrated - maybe things like Arbor Day that honor the terraforming and the dome ecologies?

[filkferengi]

Remember, Cordelia's ship was the _Rene Magritte_, after the artist. Maybe Beta Colony has holidays related to art or music.

Oh, dear; now I'm hearing carefully rational Betan bluegrass. Eep!

[biichan]

Okay, now I'm kind of in love with the idea that somebody on Sergyar decided to try to establish the official founding celebration as the anniversary of Aral & Cordelia's first meeting, mostly just in order to embarrass them. :P

Totally. It's beautiful.

Though I think after they got over their embarrassment/laughter, Cordelia decreed that it had to be celebrated with blue cheese and oatmeal ;)

[philomytha]

I expect on Komarr there are Issues about celebrating pre-Barrayaran-invasion national holidays vs celebrating Barrayaran holidays. Especially during the worst bits of the various uprisings there, I'd expect a lot of repression of any holiday that suggests that Komarr is an independent polity and a lot of 'encouragement' to celebrate the Emperor's Birthday really, really enthusiastically, and the whole thing being a benchmark for where individual Komarrans stand on the collaborator/resistance question.

On Sergyar they no doubt celebrate Prince Serg enthusiastically, which has to be fun for Aral and Cordelia...

I get the feeling Escobar is at least partly Catholic and celebrates the Catholic feast cycle (and how do you calculate the date for Easter on Escobar?) and yeah, certainly the day they drove the Barrayarans out.

[filkferengi]

Well, Aral & Cordelia could quite sincerely celebrate *surviving* Prince Serg. ;/

[holyschist]

I am curious about Cetagandan holidays, but it's been too long since I read Cetaganda to speculate.

[filkferengi]

On Cetaganda, you celebrate whatever holiday[s] the Emperor wants you too--in high style!

[holyschist]

Probably with poetry contests.

[melannen]

Hmm, I suspect there are a few Imperial days (like the Barrayaran's Emperor's Birthday) that everybody celebrates no matter what, and then there are separate Ghem and Haut holidays (and the non-aristocratic conquered peoples probably continue to celebrate their old holidays with the Ghem and Imperial holidays over the top.)

I suspect the Ghem holidays are all about military heroes and victories, and probably vary by satrapy. The Haut holidays are probably around breeding; we've seen that the days the Star Creche delivers the new children are important, and probably the days when they're concieved or registered, etc., are pretty major celebrations too.