Free Kingdoms Holidays

The Free Kingdoms, as a culture, celebrates many holidays, such as St. Lawrence's Day, Agatha's Day, and the Day of Monica and Joseph.

St. Lawrence's Day
Saint Lawrence's Day, often known as the Feast of Fools, is a holiday of revelry and community. Feast-goers travel from house to house, taking the food or fellowship offered at each, giving prizes for the places with greatest food and generosity. This holiday is notable because many people dress in poor clothing, allowing the paupers to take food with the rest, and give their wreathes as well.

The Feast of Fools has a number of traditional meals including Pauper's Pudding, a grain-based pudding that is basically a gravy-consistency alcohol, Merrybread, an extremely light-weight, airy, loaf of bread, often with sugar on top and mixed into symbols of the holiday.

St. Lawrence's Day was first started by the knight Lawrence, who went door to door giving out food during a famine with his knights. He did so at great cost to himself, as his own food stores ran out before the harsh winter. When the knights died, the people of the town took up the tradition, giving each other food every day in order to stay alive. When the winter's famine ended, they were taken to other towns, and there spread the tradition.

It is an unusual holiday, in that the normally reserved folk of the Free Kingdoms spend the day in revelry and drinking, and quite often, the entire year's store of gossip is created on that one night.

Agatha's Day
Agatha's Day is a day of solemnity, and considered the most stereotypical of all Free Kingdoms holidays. There is no work, nor any activity whatsoever, save for the playing of funeral dirges, contemplation, and writing. The sounds of bells, flutes, and wails rises up over all of the cities, and citizens spend much of the time in total silence. Free Knights, the only members of the population allowed to work, are bound by oath not to speak on that day.

The traditional songs of Agatha's Day are often simple words, tied together with long, wavering notes in minor keys. The words chosen are those which tend to evoke emotion, such as "Death, Passing, Grief, Brief, Lonely, Need," or others. Also common are long or difficult words, which force the listener to pay more careful attention. These are played at higher volume, and with a more erratic tempo, to prevent any citizen from falling asleep. Words chosen are often "Unanimous, dissenting, transient, abjure, venerated," and the like.

The day's origins are in some confusion, as they are placed before the separation of the Free Kingdoms and the Southern Kingdoms, though perhaps related to them by the War of Separation. Nevertheless, it is the focus of many tragic morality plays, and the various playwrights have all offered their own take on it.

Day of Monica and Joseph
This day is usually known by its shorter title of "Love's Day", and celebrates families everywhere. Falling in the middle of winter, sometime in early January, Love's Day is traditionally celebrated with everyone inside of the house, whoever that was, due to snowstorms trapping them in. Other traditions include a central firepit being brought out, the family all sleeping in the common room around it, and the recounting of the greatest tales of the past.

The only certain tradition would be the silent reflection, when all those present would light a torch or candle from the fire pit and sit in a circle. After a few minutes --or even hours-- of waiting, those present blow out their light in unison. For every one still lit, there was predicted to be one death in the following year.

This tradition, of course, led to many downed spirits. Recently, an additional activity came into vogue: a family "tribute". Each member of the family present would tell others present what their greatest attributes were, passing to them compliments, often written. Many variations have occurred, such as moments, or relationships being tributed instead of attributes, as well changing the number of tributes given. Regardless, it has become the norm to end the holiday on a happy note, if a somber one.

The Day of Monica and Joseph's origins are unknown, but is named because of a husband and wife and their tale, which remains relatively in-tact. They were trapped in a lonely cabin in mid-winter, and spent the time telling each other love-stories. Their fire remained lit the whole night, but midway through, Joseph's candle blew out. He took this as a sign that they should seek other shelter immediately. So, he stepped outside of the cottage to find help, and managed to attract the attention of a dragon overhead. However, before the dragon could return with another for the couple, Joseph had died. The story usually ends on a happy note, with Monica returning and fulfilling her husband's dreams of starting up an orphanage or setting up a farm, depending on the region.