On Holidays

As I sit on my couch and gaze at the seven-foot plant currently inhabiting my living room, a plant bedazzled in strings of sparkly lights and silvery garlands, standing watch over a series of boxes covered in snowmen and penguins, and hung with everything from seashells to camels to three wine corks glued together, I am reminded of another Christmas long ago and far away.

I was living in an enchanted city, but was a poor scholar, so unlike all my fellows, I was unable to return home for the holidays. In my largely non-religious family, Christmas is more a cultural holiday, a time for spending with family and experiencing the magic of gift-giving and eating and drinking more than a reasonable person should. But that year, I was alone. There were no magic sleigh rides that came to carry me away, no video chats to make me at least be able to connect, nothing more than a quick phone call, because time zones and international calling charges were a nightmare to navigate.

My apartment stood empty and cold. A tree or decorations would have cost money I did not have to waste. To console I found some crayons, paper, and scissors and made myself a symbol of a symbol.

It was not, perhaps, the most impressive tree to have ever graced a home, but it was at good six feet tall (let us not consider how long it took to make), and, as I think about it, the first tree I ever had for myself.

But even the colorful reminder of Christmas joy did little to dispel the cold in the chilly apartment or in my heart. I sat alone.

Until I did not. For friends and love are truly the purest kind of holiday magic.

A friend called me up—a bard also far from home, who had a company of those in similar straits. He insisted I come join them for the holiday, and so I was not alone. Some of the troupe celebrated Christmas in its religious sense and went to Christmas Mass, an event full of mysticism, powerful symbols, and traditions handed down through the ages. The remainder of us stayed home and watched Alien and then Aliens, which have their own sorts of symbols and traditions. And are clearly holiday movies. Clearly.

This year, I have a real tree and am less afraid of turning the heat up, but obviously still cannot see most of my family and friends. We can and will, of course, spend a few hours on Zoom, and maybe we’ll even try to synch our watching of Aliens (because I do like it more). It won’t be the same, but the lessons of love and family and small kinds of magic will be with me and I hope with you.

So why am I telling you all this in a worldbuilding blog?

Because holidays are a deeply important part of people’s lives and so are something you can add to your world to give it historical, spiritual, emotional, and political depth. They can also provide great moments in game. So let’s parse through each of those in turn.

Holidays and History: Holidays and all the small traditions that have been built up around them are a study in cultural stratigraphy. I mean, why on earth do I bring a pine tree into my house and stick presents under it in order to ostensibly celebrate the birth of someone a few thousand years ago? What exactly is the origin of all the little rituals in a Seder feast? Why do you use dates to break your fast during Ramadan? What do all the lamps symbolize in Diwali?

Notice a theme here? Symbols! Holidays are full of ‘em! What do they mean, where did they come from, what are they tied to? Do they still hold the original meaning or has that changed? Does they mean different things to different people? (If you want some inspiration here, one place to look is at the spread of Christianity to South and Central America as a starting point—some of those symbols that look the same mean very different things, and some things that symbolize the same thing look very different.)

The fun part of holiday history is that there are undoubtedly both scholarly and religious or cultural answers to all of those questions. As a GM, you can decide what is “true” and what is “known” about a holiday. Maybe they are the same, or maybe not. Or maybe you don’t even know! This can be a great way to build out interesting historical elements of your world. And you don’t have to do it alone—ask your players to come up with holidays with quirky traditions and then you can figure out what their significance is.

Holidays and Spirituality: Many holidays are religious in nature. If you know a lot about the religion in your world, use that to inspire your holiday calendar. Which deity would want celebrations? What would they look like? For big, expansionist religions, these celebrations probably get ever-stranger as they incorporate local religious holidays, beliefs, and practices into their worship (this is a process known as religious syncretism and our world’s big religious systems are full of it). How might that shape holidays in various locations that all theoretically worship the same gods?

Is your religious background more animistic in nature or does it involve ancestors? Then what sorts of holidays or even smaller festivals would people have to connect spiritually? Does the moon feature in a big way? Then maybe your holiday is based on a lunar rather than a solar calendar.

Or maybe you don’t know as much about your world’s religions yet. Holidays can be a fun place to start. Many of them are tied to major events in nature. Solstices and equinoxes are a big time to celebrate. Harvests and spring plantings. Major celestial events such as eclipses or stellar alignments might also be inspiration for a holiday. What might these practices and how they evolved over time tell you about your religions?

Holidays and Emotions: Holidays are often communal affairs. They are often celebrated with family, friends, and communities. They can be somber, light-hearted, or joyous in nature, but those are emotions that are often shared. Even for characters who aren’t very religious or political, the associations with family may be enough to make them love it (or hate it, depending). So what are your characters’ (PCs and NPCs alike) most and least favorite holidays? What does that say about them or their community?

Holidays and Politics: Some holidays, though, are civic in nature. These days commemorate the founding of a country, a ruler’s birthday, major historical events or treaties, the memory of particularly meaningful individuals, and so on. Though they may be celebrated with festivals that bring together community, they’re a little less family- and friend-centric. They can also be deeply contentious when the moments or ideas they celebrate are problematic (or are based on convenient versions of the truth).

(Picture: Author is on the far back/left drum, performing taiko at Washington, D.C.’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival, which celebrates both U.S.-Japanese political relations as well as the broader Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival, a cultural holiday.)

For example, the country of Maezam in the world of Aintalla is made up of five major regions that, deep in history, were united by force. The leaders of the fledgling nation put five holidays on the calendar, one to celebrate the culture of each of those regions, to build a sense of pride in being a unified place made of diverse and equal peoples. At it’s heart, it’s a deeply political move, full of lots of rhetoric and manipulation, but a couple thousand years later, most people see these days as a good a reason as any to skip a day of work and try the strange cuisines that show up in pop-up markets on the street. Some, though, remember that they are propaganda for an expansionist kingdom and harbor deep anger about the whole idea and what it represents.

Holidays and Gameplay: As mentioned, asking about characters’ favorite holidays can be a fun part of character development, but can also be a way for you to get your players to help in worldbuilding by coming up with the holidays. Having these holidays roll through on the calendar during gameplay can be a way to tug on the heartstrings of a character as they weigh the options of going home (or getting far from it).

In addition, though, holidays can be useful during adventures or campaigns. Just had a long, grueling task the party completed? Let them come back to town where a holiday is in full swing for a filler scene! (Pro tip: if you’re able to play in person, this can be a great time to introduce fun, holiday-appropriate snacks to your table to help create some atmosphere. If you ever want some help or inspiration on that front, just reach out—we at Worlds Unending LOVE making up cuisines! I suspect there will be future posts on the topic…)

And holidays don’t even have to be filler scenes. Maybe it’s the Flower Festival in Alidar and the Empress opens the palace’s private gardens to the public on this one day—who knows who the PCs might meet? Or perhaps its the Festival of Masks in Maezam where the “Adversary God” mask might not be just a person in a mask prowling the city, but the very demon you are hunting. Or perhaps, during the holiday to honor the God of Hospitality, the High Lord of Erenphalia just might be willing to grant a boon to the party during his audiences with the commoners.

Holidays, then, are a great way to build that depth into your world, learn about your characters, and add a little something special to your game day.

So, in the end, from all of us at Worlds Unending, we hope you enjoy your holidays. All of them.