I wonder if anyone will ever talk to me after this post.
Is it lame that, in the process of being obsessive and thus trying to come up with a premise/structure/backstory for this Adama/Roslin idea that I've been toying with... I sort of invented a rather complicated holiday for the BSG-verse?
It steals the name of the Athenian new year festival (Panathanaia), as well as some of its concepts, but it's also vaguely like Mardi Gras and Carnivale. (Okay, so maybe just the samba music. And the bright colors.) I got to thinking that there had to be more major holidays in the Twelve Colonies besides Colonial Day, which seems akin to an Independence Day and, since someone in 1x11 mentions it's comemorating the fifty-two years since the signing of the whatever-document-that-brought-them-together, is probably not that old. And what's the best source for holidays? RELIGION. And what's the one aspect of religion that, even in a polytheistic society, everyone can agree on? THE NEW YEAR. YAY.
Since I've always thought it was absolutely batshit insane to start a new year in the dead of winter (*eyes Western civilization*), I decided that for the Twelve Colonies, the new year coincides somewhat with the first planting - you know, springtime, the thaw, rebirth, and all that jazz. But unlike the Athenians, who used a lunar calendar system (a month = roughly a cycle of the moon) and thus had no set dates for anything, the Colonials (sidenote: what did they call themselves before they were united, I wonder?) have a solar calendar and, like us, the new year starts on the same day every year. But it's a symbolic thing, mm'k?
So, Panathanaia. It's a huge, multi-day celebration, just like the Athenians did it. And just like the Athenians, because Panathanaia is a universal holiday, it is considered extremely uncalled for to make war for the twelve days leading up to the new year, as well as the first day itself. A truce is called. No trade or political activities are conducted. Just like the Persians did to the Greeks, I have this crazy theory that the Cylons first attack forty years ago? was during Panathanaia. Knowingly, too. The ultimate slap-in-the-face.
While I'm not sure how it would have applied to more urbanized society, here's how it worked in smaller villages: thirteen days before the end of the year, at night in a private ceremony, statues of the Twelve Lords of Kobol are placed in the town square. The next morning, citizens gather and the names of the gods are... well, basically placed in a pot and drawn at random. The order that they're drawn indicates the order of their dedication days - in other words, each god gets a day to receive dedications from the citizens (a small statue, a flower, or other small object), but that order is random and ultimately meaningless, because no god is more important than another. That being said, there is some prophecy in the last god to be chosen, because it is that deity who is believed to be "watching over" the upcoming year, since she/he is the last to receive a dedication. (So, if the last goddess is Athena, great wisdom to be passed on to the leaders; if its Ares, then perhaps the citizens will be involved in a conflict; Artemis and Aphrodite being two different kinds of fertility). Each dedication takes place in the morning, and consists of first draping a white cloth over the god's statue. The small gifts are then placed at the base of the statue.
After the final dedication day to the twelfth god, each citizen takes a piece of a laurel branch from the priests, one for each family, which is to be hung above the door for the first thirteen days of the new year. The rest of this last day of the old year is spent as a rest day. No work is done. The village is quiet and somber, almost as if it's mourning the passing of the old year. There is a ceremonial meal with family, and probably some other smaller, more familial rituals involved, too. Day ends at sunset (which is especially important when the Colonies become urbanized and invent the artificial light source - very symbolic).
The thirteen day is the first day of the new year. In the morning, again, citizens gather in the town square, and it is then that the white clothes are removed from the statues of the Lords of Kobol and replaced by brightly colored ones. And then it's PARTY TIME!! There is a huge feast and everyone dresses up in their finest, brightest clothes and drinks Ambrosia and whatever that champagne-looking alcohol is. Maybe there's a parade, too. IT'S CRAZY. For this one day, everyone is supposed to throw social convention to the wind and party as equals. There's lots of dancing (again, another symbol of fertility, if you get my drift) to music that I like to pretend sounds a LOT like samba music. This goes on for the entire day, or until everyone basically passes out.
Life resumes its normal course on the second day of the new year - wars can resume, as can trade and politics. The statues covered in bright cloth, however, like the laurel on the houses, remain for twelve days into the new year.
(Okay, so it's possible this resembles the actual Panathanaia more than I originally intended. I was nothing if not inspired by that particular Greek religion lecture.)
So, yeah. That's my holiday.
I need a life, guys.
(BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH. RAWRR.)
It steals the name of the Athenian new year festival (Panathanaia), as well as some of its concepts, but it's also vaguely like Mardi Gras and Carnivale. (Okay, so maybe just the samba music. And the bright colors.) I got to thinking that there had to be more major holidays in the Twelve Colonies besides Colonial Day, which seems akin to an Independence Day and, since someone in 1x11 mentions it's comemorating the fifty-two years since the signing of the whatever-document-that-brought-them-together, is probably not that old. And what's the best source for holidays? RELIGION. And what's the one aspect of religion that, even in a polytheistic society, everyone can agree on? THE NEW YEAR. YAY.
Since I've always thought it was absolutely batshit insane to start a new year in the dead of winter (*eyes Western civilization*), I decided that for the Twelve Colonies, the new year coincides somewhat with the first planting - you know, springtime, the thaw, rebirth, and all that jazz. But unlike the Athenians, who used a lunar calendar system (a month = roughly a cycle of the moon) and thus had no set dates for anything, the Colonials (sidenote: what did they call themselves before they were united, I wonder?) have a solar calendar and, like us, the new year starts on the same day every year. But it's a symbolic thing, mm'k?
So, Panathanaia. It's a huge, multi-day celebration, just like the Athenians did it. And just like the Athenians, because Panathanaia is a universal holiday, it is considered extremely uncalled for to make war for the twelve days leading up to the new year, as well as the first day itself. A truce is called. No trade or political activities are conducted. Just like the Persians did to the Greeks, I have this crazy theory that the Cylons first attack forty years ago? was during Panathanaia. Knowingly, too. The ultimate slap-in-the-face.
While I'm not sure how it would have applied to more urbanized society, here's how it worked in smaller villages: thirteen days before the end of the year, at night in a private ceremony, statues of the Twelve Lords of Kobol are placed in the town square. The next morning, citizens gather and the names of the gods are... well, basically placed in a pot and drawn at random. The order that they're drawn indicates the order of their dedication days - in other words, each god gets a day to receive dedications from the citizens (a small statue, a flower, or other small object), but that order is random and ultimately meaningless, because no god is more important than another. That being said, there is some prophecy in the last god to be chosen, because it is that deity who is believed to be "watching over" the upcoming year, since she/he is the last to receive a dedication. (So, if the last goddess is Athena, great wisdom to be passed on to the leaders; if its Ares, then perhaps the citizens will be involved in a conflict; Artemis and Aphrodite being two different kinds of fertility). Each dedication takes place in the morning, and consists of first draping a white cloth over the god's statue. The small gifts are then placed at the base of the statue.
After the final dedication day to the twelfth god, each citizen takes a piece of a laurel branch from the priests, one for each family, which is to be hung above the door for the first thirteen days of the new year. The rest of this last day of the old year is spent as a rest day. No work is done. The village is quiet and somber, almost as if it's mourning the passing of the old year. There is a ceremonial meal with family, and probably some other smaller, more familial rituals involved, too. Day ends at sunset (which is especially important when the Colonies become urbanized and invent the artificial light source - very symbolic).
The thirteen day is the first day of the new year. In the morning, again, citizens gather in the town square, and it is then that the white clothes are removed from the statues of the Lords of Kobol and replaced by brightly colored ones. And then it's PARTY TIME!! There is a huge feast and everyone dresses up in their finest, brightest clothes and drinks Ambrosia and whatever that champagne-looking alcohol is. Maybe there's a parade, too. IT'S CRAZY. For this one day, everyone is supposed to throw social convention to the wind and party as equals. There's lots of dancing (again, another symbol of fertility, if you get my drift) to music that I like to pretend sounds a LOT like samba music. This goes on for the entire day, or until everyone basically passes out.
Life resumes its normal course on the second day of the new year - wars can resume, as can trade and politics. The statues covered in bright cloth, however, like the laurel on the houses, remain for twelve days into the new year.
(Okay, so it's possible this resembles the actual Panathanaia more than I originally intended. I was nothing if not inspired by that particular Greek religion lecture.)
So, yeah. That's my holiday.
I need a life, guys.
(BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH. RAWRR.)