Ficlet: Traditions
Title: Traditions
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Others.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Customs and traditions on Boeshane are different from the ones on earth.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 168: Custom at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Boeshane’s holiday traditions revolved more around the planet’s solstices than around Christmas and other days of religious significance that humans had carried with them as they’d spread out across the universe. To be honest, the customs that surrounded the various earth holidays had become somewhat garbled over the three thousand years between the present day and Jack’s childhood, far in the future and on another world, which wasn’t surprising. Humans had mixed and mingled with so many other races by then, each with their own customs and traditions, that people had gradually forgotten much of what their ancestors had believed.
On Boeshane, there hadn’t been any particular religious reason for celebrating the shortest day, it had simply been seen as the end of one year and the beginning of the next, a time to rejoice in new lives begun, remember loved ones lost over the year that was ending, and to look forward with hope to all that was to come.
Midsummer, the longest day of the year and the days either side of it, was more like a huge party combined with a music festival, people coming together to live it up before they had to get stuck in with harvesting crops and repairing homes in readiness for storm season.
Being stranded on earth, Jack had found himself re-learning many things that the humans of his time had long since forgotten, among them the various seasonal holy days his fellow Torchwood employees celebrated. By his time a simple spelling error had somehow succeeded in combining Santa and Satan into one person; it was quite an eye-opener to find that the jolly fat man dressed in a red suit trimmed with white fur was not actually the ruler of the underworld, who took toys from children to punish them for being naughty but a benevolent old gentlemen who gave out toys instead.
Of course, Jack being Jack, the custom he liked best was kissing under the mistletoe. It was the perfect excuse to plant a smacker on anyone he chose, the best fun being to catch a couple taking advantage of a well-positioned sprig and kiss them both. There was a lot to be said for old earth customs; Easter eggs were another thing he heartily approved of. All that lovely chocolate!
He didn’t give up his Boeshanian traditions though. He might be the only Boeshanian on earth, but the customs of his people were a part of him. He could no more ignore them than his Christian colleagues over the decades could ignore Christmas.
Now it was the shortest day of the earth year and Jack was getting ready to celebrate. There had been losses over the last year, people he and his team had failed to save, but there was new life too, his and Ianto’s baby daughter, born in May. Soon there would be another new life as Tosh was expecting, her baby due in January.
His family and friends had a lot to look forward to..
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Others.
Rating: G
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Customs and traditions on Boeshane are different from the ones on earth.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 168: Custom at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Boeshane’s holiday traditions revolved more around the planet’s solstices than around Christmas and other days of religious significance that humans had carried with them as they’d spread out across the universe. To be honest, the customs that surrounded the various earth holidays had become somewhat garbled over the three thousand years between the present day and Jack’s childhood, far in the future and on another world, which wasn’t surprising. Humans had mixed and mingled with so many other races by then, each with their own customs and traditions, that people had gradually forgotten much of what their ancestors had believed.
On Boeshane, there hadn’t been any particular religious reason for celebrating the shortest day, it had simply been seen as the end of one year and the beginning of the next, a time to rejoice in new lives begun, remember loved ones lost over the year that was ending, and to look forward with hope to all that was to come.
Midsummer, the longest day of the year and the days either side of it, was more like a huge party combined with a music festival, people coming together to live it up before they had to get stuck in with harvesting crops and repairing homes in readiness for storm season.
Being stranded on earth, Jack had found himself re-learning many things that the humans of his time had long since forgotten, among them the various seasonal holy days his fellow Torchwood employees celebrated. By his time a simple spelling error had somehow succeeded in combining Santa and Satan into one person; it was quite an eye-opener to find that the jolly fat man dressed in a red suit trimmed with white fur was not actually the ruler of the underworld, who took toys from children to punish them for being naughty but a benevolent old gentlemen who gave out toys instead.
Of course, Jack being Jack, the custom he liked best was kissing under the mistletoe. It was the perfect excuse to plant a smacker on anyone he chose, the best fun being to catch a couple taking advantage of a well-positioned sprig and kiss them both. There was a lot to be said for old earth customs; Easter eggs were another thing he heartily approved of. All that lovely chocolate!
He didn’t give up his Boeshanian traditions though. He might be the only Boeshanian on earth, but the customs of his people were a part of him. He could no more ignore them than his Christian colleagues over the decades could ignore Christmas.
Now it was the shortest day of the earth year and Jack was getting ready to celebrate. There had been losses over the last year, people he and his team had failed to save, but there was new life too, his and Ianto’s baby daughter, born in May. Soon there would be another new life as Tosh was expecting, her baby due in January.
His family and friends had a lot to look forward to..
The End