Birthday of a Rational Velor

Birthdays among the Rational Velors symbolize another year the person survived without being caught by the Church of the Elders.

History

Rational Velors claim that their way of celebrating birthdays is the originial way they were celebrated among all Velors before the Elders arrival. Persecutions, however, caused some changes to the ceremony. The first change was the added symbolism of surviving another year without being caught. Then came the changes that made the celebration more suited for the situation of the Rational Velors. It were changes like limiting the number of birthdays during the person's life when the extended family must be present to two.

Execution

Rational Velors aren't a spiritual group and their ceremonies don't have a strict formula. Birthdays are just family gatherings during which people have fun.
Food is the most important part of the celebration. During the two big birthdays (first and coming of age) each guest is asked to bring one food. Usually the dinner is a few hours long with a lot of conversations, jokes and laughter. The culmination of the celebration is a Mokant Cake.

Participants

Birthday is a family ceremony. Most years only the closest family (parents, sibilings and, maybe, grandparents) takes part in it. Only for the most important birthdays the whole extended family is invited. These are the first birthday and the birthday when a child becomes an adult.

Observance

Obviously, birthdays are observed once a year. However, it isn't obligatory to celebrate every birthday. Not celebrating the first birthday or coming of age is considered weird. All other birthdays don't need to be celebrate with the extended family so some people don't celebrate every year.

Related Ethnicities

• Rational Velors

We are very proud of our son who is entering into the adulthood today. He is the only of our three children who survived. His brother and sister were brutally taken from us by those alien worshipping zealots during a raid five years ago. Enough about that. We are here to celebrate and have fun.

— Father during his son's coming of age birthday