Winter Fete

From: The immigrant's guide to Tapani customs

- TEO Publishing, Ninth Edition

Winter Fete:

Week-long festival after the end of Welona, tenth month of the year, in the Tapani Imperium

Overall theme:

• To restore balance between linked complements is to increase joy.
• Those with greater resources give to those with less;
• Light diffuses into darkness;
• Sweetness mingles with sharpness;
• Toil alternates with rest.

Origins and History:

Winter Fete began early in the Colonial Era as an observation of the winter solstice on Procopia's Destato Island. It shifted around 4800 T, late in the Twelve Kingdoms Era, to be a week-long commemoration of the calendar year's ending.

Sensory Themes

Visual

Reflecting its origin as a celebration of the night sky in the southern hemisphere of Procopia on its shortest day, all visual components of a Winter Fete celebration involve some form of dark-colored, matte base with a bright, possibly reflective or luminous fragments of color spread over it.

This may be embedded glitter.

This may be a repeating geometric pattern of circles or dashes in its owner's House colors.

This may be a photorealistic or stylized representation of the actual night sky, viewed from an island of Procopia or as seen from the official residence of the owner's ancestors.

Nonhuman members of the population might use colors not visible to the human perception range.

At minimum, all citizens of the Tapani Imperium will make some effort with their clothing or cosmetics to include some visual representation. The greatest effort will be used on the day of Winter Fete Week with the greatest concentration of observances for their social caste and region.

Aural

Special emphasis is placed on most audio interactions to add extra energy and an emotional impression of positivity. Percussion instruments feature heavily in music, as do sharp glottal stops and fast-paced lyrics. Places of business may scatter large numbers of cheap bells or chimes about their locations and vehicles. Employment uniform codes may require the employees to attach rattles or crotal bells to certain areas of their outer garb.

Business negotiations may be conducted at a faster pace than typical. Possibly a veneer of excessive cheer, complete with sweet phrasing that would be considered disturbing at normal times, will take up as much of the total business negotiation as does the actual business matter under discussion.

Aromatical

The overriding theme for scent dispensers and food items during Winter Fete is "mildly sweet, but with a bite". Orange Catholic households in particular debate with their co-religious about different pastries made with cardamom bread and brillberry syrup. These are both sweet components. The dough has a spicy undertone that causes most human or near-human mucuous membranes to contract as if encountering a burst of cold air. The syrup is as tart as it is sweet, sometimes carrying a piney undertone. But what proportions? Include a creamy layer, or a savory protein? Serve hot (because in winter, our ancestors preferred hot food), cold (to remind us of winter), or at room temperature (for symbolic balance)?

Followers of other religions such as Church of the Force or the Keshiri do also tend toward cardamom bread and similar sweet-but-spicy festival food. They are not as likely to object so strongly to others' variant recipes. But they do also tend to sample a wider variety of new menu items.

Vestibular

When visiting artificial environments such as an independently orbiting station or a passenger starliner, many civilian-only locations will regulate the inertial compensators to slightly reduce the strength of the artificial gravity in increments each day as the week goes by, symbolizing the feeling of leaving the burdens of the departing year behind.

Be careful on the first day of Elona in the new year, as artificial gravity returns to full strength over the course of six standard hours. This additional strain is the primary reason that the old custom has been falling out of use recently.

Observance Customs

Atunda Observance, Formal

High Vor tradition for Winter Fete Week begins with the Bonfire Ball on the night of 35 Welona. An invitation to attend this ultra-elite event at the Imperium Palace on Estalle Island is an indicator of great personal prestige among the most powerful people in the Tapani Imperium. It is also a command appeararance -- literally, legally, as well as culturally. In fact, the invitation is specifically worded thus:

Imperial Lord and Master

Gregor Vortapani

requests and requires

the favor of your attendance

at Our Imperium Palace

on the final night of the current year

Refreshments at 2030

Dancing at 2200

Imperial Bestowment
over the
Midnight Bonfire

While more than one Count has found their annual fiscal resources drastically reduced by their sudden need to equip themselves for a Bonfire Ball appearance, it is considered better to make an impeccable appearance on this one evening than to continue funding some political project which has drawn Imperial notice.

And it's far more important to attend as requested than it is to dress according to one's station, receive medical treatments, or deal with any kind of environmental disaster elsewhere. To disregard an Imperial Requirement is treason!

Citizens of the High Vor caste who do not have that prestigious red-and-blue invitation usually attend lesser "Winter Fete Balls" hosted by the senior echelon among their respective Province. These take place on Atunda.

Those Vor (High or Low) in current military or ministry service within Procopia System are likely to receive invitations to one of the balls at Vorhartung Castle on Estalle Island. These particular events tend to be considered "highly desirable" by elder nobles but "excruciatingly regrettable" by the youngest adults in the population.

Katunda Observance, Semi-formal

Katunda is the day that the Low Vor social caste hold their private and family-focused events. Those who live away from the primary House residence may begin their travels shortly after 0100 standard time in order to attend the Winter Fete Brunch on time. For most families, this is the big "family reunion" of the year where life achievements are celebrated or planned, estate business is managed, fealty oaths are renewed, tax records are updated, and genetic files are added to the family archive. If any security measures require regular adjustments, this is the event where such changes happen, with all parties present.

In Orange Catholic families, "Katunda, Winter Fete" is also known as "The Feast of Truths". Only the young and infirm eat anything before the major midday meal. Each individual is expected to share a personal truth about themselves that they discovered over the course of the past year before the family sits at the feast table. The highest-ranking member of the oathmaking structure (possibly a Baron or Baroness, often a Knight or Dame) and the youngest verbal member will lead all present in reciting the Litany of the Giudichar, after which all take their seats for a festive meal.

Regardless of religion, gift exchanges take place after the meal. The family then cleans the dining and meal preparation areas up as a joint venture, allowing any family servants to have the remainder of this day and the next off-duty.

Satunda Observance, Mixed

Satunda is informally known as "Sufficiency Day" or "Underling Day" in various provinces of Tapani Sector. Most service industry civilians have the day off as a federal holiday, which means that most businesses will be understaffed with their work done by business owners or high-ranking executives for the day.

Some citizens love this tradition because it keeps the workings of the lowest echelons in business on the minds of those who set the overall strategy. Others wish it would be abandoned because they may still be making fine adjustments to this one day's work by the end of the next Kelona.

For reasons that are seldom discussed outside the order, Solicitors delight in a day spent doing the work ordinarily left to clerks.

Most members of the Nobility make a point of genial good spirits while responsible for the tasks normally performed on their behalf. If not engaged in military or government work, the reigning Counts and High Lords take a mini-vacation to one of the restful areas of their private residences. Admiral Count Aral Vorkosigan and Captain Countess Cordelia Vorkosigan, for example, go sailing in the bay of Vorkosigan Surleau if their schedules permit them to leave both Estalle Island and Pelagar behind. This tradition at least reduces the number of Armsmen who must remain on duty for this particular day.

Individuals thus enjoying a day away from their regular tasks are likely to see to private activities that they would ordinarily have to cram into gaps in their schedule. They might make appointments to consult with a bank officer about account changes; they might consult legal advice from a Solicitor, they might move from one leased residence to another; they might interview with a baba or a spiritual advisor or the managing representative for a school.

The advantage here falls to small businesses, who are likely to spend the entire day going from meeting to meeting with current or future clients for future commissions. Large businesses have few openings for client meetings because spend this day operating with a fragment of their usual staff -- the very people who probably are arranging destinations for their pay at those small businesses.

Note that the Imperium Military services are not included in the Satunda, Winter Fete tradition.

Datunda Observance, Citizen

On Datunda of Winter Fete, almost all of the Low Vor social caste and some High Vor commemorate the swing from cold darkness to brighter, warmer days by hosting parades in their home areas. Hover vehicles and repulserlifts load up with bright decorations, small treat bags balanced for tossing in groups, coolers full of quick-melting streamer spools, and of course properly outfitted Vor to toss the treat bags to their subjects.

The traditional contents of the treat bags vary wildly by the Great House of origin for the family member organizing this parade -- usually, but not always, the Lady of the House.

• In Barnaba Province, the bag's contents are strictly traditional: a handful of small pieces of candy, one freshly-minted Imperial mark, and a short fabric ribbon in the colors of the House.
• In Cadriaan Province, the bag has one small toy made with local materials (such as a small spacia whistle or volcanic glass miniatures of hyperspace shuttles) and snack-sized samples of atchara or natto bars.
• In Calipsa Province, the bag contains a handful of candied nuts, a tiny flimsiplast booklet of math puzzles, and either a sample-sized bar of soap or a stretchable bracelet of beads shaped like the plants of the Crystal Forest near Cambrian in Calipsa System.
• In Mecetti Province, competitive inclinations in the population are encouraged by putting small "limited edition collectibles" in the bag: tiny framed portraits of past House Vormecetti High Lords, or lapel pins, or cypher tutorials, or chips of semi-precious materials. Low Vor Houses of the Province also include hard candy so that the children in the crowd will appear genuinely delighted with their catch in the holovid transmission.
• In Melantha Province, the bags are always decorated with starmap prints. The contents include candy starfighters, a toy audio-only HoloNet transceiver whose battery would probably run out by the end of the next month, and a packet of dehydrated berries.
• In Pelagia Province, the bags have traditionally been made from a compostable fabric. The contents include candy or baked treats; a cheap, hand-sized light source such as a short glowstick or glowstone, and either a pendant shaped from local renewable resources or a tiny pot containing a seed or bulb for a native plant. Since many of the settled planets in Pelagia Province are considered "ocean worlds", these tend to be halophytes that will help stabilize saline levels in their environment even if abandoned by their young gardeners.
• In Reena Province, the bag holds a cheap data crystal with clues for this year's Educational Scavenger Hunt, plus one or two sugar-dusted fruit bars.
• Of all the separate political components of the Tapani Sector, only in Freeworlds Territory are the Datunda Bonfire Parades difficult to predict. Some worlds barely acknowledge the day, while others have Tapani non-Vorish community organizations that host similar celebrations to their more caste-divided neighbors. A parade might be a somber, serious event, or it might be full of silly caricatures and bowdlerized indulgences. Attempts to instill order on the celebrations along the Shapani Bypass have only resulted in wilder "spontaneous cavalcades". The bags thrown may contain anything from low-grade candy and disposable body adornments to samples of items for sale from bulk shipments of questionable legality.

Natunda Observance, Governmental

Natunda of Winter Fete hosts many of the most extravagant public celebrations in provincial capitals, but is a day of rest and recuperation away from government centers. The travel and hospitality industries treat the period around this day as a stress test for their preparations as they look toward the next Expansion Week and the start of Capital Season.

Governments of Tapani Provinces have taken to expanding their festivities since 12721 when the Tapani Imperium restored its independence from Palpatine's Galactic Empire. Each Great House hosts its own multi-stage parade that includes important components of their House Defense Force Fleet flying colors in near orbit and House Defense Guard leading official parades in the main thoroughfare. Important Counts award honors to notable citizens. The High Lord or High Lady gives their State of the Province address to their vassals from a balcony in the Great House Capitol looking over a carefully-maintained public courtyard.

By 1740 standard time across the Tapani Sector, all regional government observances wind up so that the political leaders can attend -- and be seen to attend -- live broadcasts of the Tapani Imperium Military Parade through the streets of Estalle Island to the steps of Vorhartung Castle. A formal address on the events of the past year and goals for the coming year was given in previous decades by the Prime Minister. Lately the speaker is either Imperial Princess Katianna Vortapani or Emperor Gregor Vortapani.

Fireworks and holographic light shows finish the night with open-air concerts either prearranged or impromptu. By the last minute of the last hour of the year, everyone with any remaining stamina is out in public-adjacent areas to make welcoming sounds, ushering in the new year.

Overview:

• last five days of calendar year
• intercalary week
• coincides with New Year Fete Week on Coruscant calendar, but dated to end of old year instead of opening new year
• observance obligatory for all social castes, but not necessarily resource-intensive

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Primary Related Location

Tapani Sector

Related Ethnicities

• High Vor
• Low Vor
• Tapani