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

[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.