Practicum: Holidays - Tribravery
Greetings and saprostomous! ...do I need to brush my teeth? …No, my breath is fine. Anyway, it is the magical time of the year when holidays happen! Winter solstice and all that. So this year, instead of talking about what a holiday is like I did last year, I am doing a practicum on a holiday for one of my star nations. Guess who!
It’s the Raixher.
Source
Let’s first remember what a holiday is:
A holiday is a day where a significant portion of people of a specific culture disrupt their day-to-day life in order to celebrate something.
So this means it has to be something important to the people at hand. And for the Raixher species, what could that possibly be?
Well, of course the event that united them! A TLDR version of it:
An asteroid was found to be hurling toward their homeworld Raixhla. Civilian governments turned out to be incompetent, so militaries took over, and they blew up the asteroid. Xhetlo Kunen was the one in charge of it all and sacrificed himself to finish the mission.
This event is held in high regard by the Raixher and so is Xhetlo himself. One important thing to know when it comes to the Raixher after the event is one of Xhetlo’s quotes that shaped their culture strongly and all rulers after him:
Cowardice requires a lifetime's choices. Bravery requires one choice.
It was engraved on the plaque for the statue they made in his honour. It is the second part that became the most important part and formed a core aspect of their culture. Namely, a belief that everyone has one moment in their life where they will have the chance to make their one choice, and anyone can be brave if they just make that choice.
So, why not make a holiday based on that? Of course they would; they are a people who love big displays! Pragmatic but love the impractical: a wonderful contradiction of cultural values, isn’t it? Let’s talk about Tribravery, the most important holiday in the Raixhen calendar.
Holiday layout
Of course, the highlight will be the very day when they were saved, the day the asteroid was blown up and rendered a non-threat. But if we think about it, there was more to the mission itself. They had to build a spacecraft, and they built quite the one to get far enough to not have to deal with the asteroid coming down in only slightly smaller chunks. Then, there is also the whole thing about returning with as many survivors as possible.
So I was thinking, there would likely be holidays related to all three events–departure, explosion, return–all serving to create a whole known as the Tribravery. But a thing at the centre of this all is the idea of “making the choice.” Is this holiday the one choice they will make? Probably not; they all know that for this holiday, it won’t be their defining choice, but it would be more about preparing yourself so that when the time comes and the choice stands before you, you are ready to make it!
Day of Departure
This day, known as DoD, technically occurred months before the explosion, but as we all know, things too far apart tend to drift away from each other. So the departure celebration occurs only 2 weeks before the main event. The main purpose here is to decide what you will do for the Day of Explosion, also known as the DoE. In general it is something that challenges you, makes you feel scared, nervous, embarrassed, even unwell at the thought.
Although a Raixhe can join in the challenges as young as 5, provided the challenges are overseen by parents and age-appropriate, most children don't begin until 10. By the time they're 13, it's expected that they're participating if possible.
It is important to understand that to the Raixher, this is not a comparison between themselves and others. It is a personal experience and challenge. It is considered very bad practice, offensive even, and bad luck to try to one-up anyone else. This is because of what their second Xhaisin, or empress, named Xhindra, said:
It is not the size of the choice that is important, but the making of the choice.
So for some young Raixher, it can be as small as actually asking an ultiphont, priphont, or midphont (their equivalent of man or woman) out on a date. For some more experienced Raixher, it can be as big as doing atmodiving–diving into the atmosphere from orbit–because it's something they have wanted to do but never done in their life, and now, it is time. It can be literally as small or as big as the individual needs it to be, as long as it somehow challenges the Raixhe.
How is this done? This part of the celebration tends to be the least structured in that it can be in any way any person wants it to be. A very common way to celebrate is with a large meal with your peers and all of the people around the table, or however they have chosen to do it, announce what they plan to do.
This is partially to lock yourself into what you plan on doing through peer pressure and social accountability. It is also so that if you need help, there are people who know and can help you. After all, if you plan diving into the depths of some trench, you will need help to make it as safe as possible. As much as these celebrations are about challenges and that inherently involves some level of danger, it is idiotic to make it needlessly dangerous, and people start dropping like flies. This is also one reason why one-upping is frowned upon, as it encourages dangerous activities and is pointless.
Day of Explosion
The DoE is the most fixed day of all three. The others can be moved within family, and some planets nudge them to fit other circumstances better, but the Day of Explosion is the one fixed in time because this is the day when more or less everyone tries to do their challenge. Of course, this is completely impossible to happen if literally no one works, so you can imagine the huge holiday pay you get for working on this day. It’s a lot; honestly, I’d work that day just for the money! Their currency is called thorn, but that’s going off track here for a brief second or two.
Huge swaths of the population do their challenge and choice that day, and it is done all throughout the day. The main event of the day is whatever you have planned to do as your challenge. The most common challenges are out and about in the town/city that can provide it. Which, believe it or not, does mean there are plenty of thrill rides. In many places, you could go in, and it looks like the entire town has turned into a tivoli, or amusement park, and circus combined into one with even more events sprinkled around.
At a pre-announced time, which may differ depending on the year, people of the Imperial family often, but not always, complete their challenges for all to see. This is by no means a demand of the Imperial family but rather a custom that has emerged to help inspire people and show that they, too, will challenge themselves. It is, however, not announced what it will be. Though if one is honest, given connections and most likely needed preparations, people have a vague idea in the days leading up to the Day of Explosion.
A cute thing that happens with young members of the Imperial family, especially if they are in the line of succession, is that their first big challenge is actually showing up in the broadcast itself. Imagine it as if a camera rolls with text saying who it is meant to be, a voice unseen telling the sproutling to walk into the shot, and you see a young little ultimale come in and say hi to the entire Empire. That is their entire challenge, to get them comfortable in front of the camera… and it is fucking adorable.
Day of Return
The Day of Return, known as the DoR, marks the return of the surviving crew, all but Xhetlo himself, to Raixhla. But similar to the departure, its date is more fluid and has actually drifted to be closer to the Day of Explosion, so it occurs about 10-20 days after the DoE. This is partially to let any fall out from one’s challenge have had time to happen. After all, if you challenged yourself to ask that cute man/woman out, you want time to be able to go on the date, right?
This happens often within the family but can be much larger where even collections of superfamilies–Raixher organise themselves into superfamilies of 6 individuals–celebrate together. The main point of this is to encapsulate the famous motto from the third of the founding Kunen Trio, Fwutla:
The choice is what matters, not the success.
Namely, the important part is you making the choice and trying to do it. But sometimes, life goes the way it does, and sometimes… you just fail. But that is okay. It is just how it goes, and to Raixhen culture, that is just as important. There is another time to make another choice, and you have time to learn from this one to work on yourself. You might have chosen cowardice this time, but you are always only one choice away from bravery.
Anyway, these gatherings involve food, lots of food. As my old blogpost on holidays said, food is a MAJOR component on any holiday. Imagine–actually, wait.
Yeah, I don’t quite know what is going on there, but it does show aliens eating alien food! Not like the Raixher, those are definitely not Raixher, but what can you do, ChatGPT is going to do what it does best: random fun stuff.
So yeah, like a giant table with lots of alien foods, containing meat, vleem (meat from planimals), vegetables, etc. I am not going to go into the details of all the dishes because I am useless at actual food. When the Tribravery started in the old days, it was all Raixhla-based dishes and foods, but as the Empire grew, they incorporated many other dishes, and over time, different colonies and worlds incorporated slightly different preferred dishes.
There is, of course, alcohol as well; we are not talking midsummer or new year's levels of alcohol, but enough that far too many adults regret the choice of having children when they wake up hungover. But like before, I won’t go into details–actually, ANNE! Add to the list of potential practicums using LLMs to create dishes, drinks, etc that are not just Adjective + Existing dish/drink, please! (Anne: Added!)
At this enormous dinner, feast, or whatever you call it, it is common, but not required, that people announce how it went. Did you succeed, did you fail? Did you flourish, did you bail? Hey, that rhymes! Anyway, you tell it to the group, and people are generally meant to be supportive and positive. Not the kind of false positivity that is actually harmful, but genuine positivity. If you fail, you can do better next year and work on improving yourself. If you succeed, congratulations! If you bailed, again, you can work on yourself so that next year, it won’t feel so monumental that you bail. And if you don’t want to tell, that is okay, too. Maybe next year you can make the choice to tell and face yourself.
And to tie it back to the little sproutling crown-princess, it is not uncommon for really young ones to bail and be unable to appear before the Empire. They are not penalised for it. Why would they be? They are just children, after all. But no one makes a big deal out of it; the Xhaisin shows up on the DoE and says she (the sproutling) will try again next year before wishing well to all Imperial Citizens for the day. One interesting thing is that within the Imperial Palace, there are actually no celebrations!
No, it's not because they won’t celebrate the DoR; they do. But the Raixher are very much for practicality, except when they aren’t. One thing that the whole stratocracy, ruled by the military, has going is to not let people get detached from the necessities of rule as rulers. And one important aspect of that is to not lose the connection between the monarch and the people. So every year, before the DoR but after the DoE, one family is picked to host the Imperial family. And it is not any random people, it is generally people close to the bottom that can use extra help.
Said family gets money from the Imperial family’s coffers to host at any level of formality the family desires, but they are generally asked to keep it at the level they usually do and only expand it to include the Xhaisin and her family as honoured guests. While this is meant to make sure that the Xhaisin doesn’t lose her connection with her people, it often ends up helping said family as well. Given the Raixher’s devotion to the Imperial family, being picked is a huge honour, so business for the family often starts booming right after… Must be a coincidence.
And as the sun Raixhol sets and the three moons rise on the final holiday of this trio of days, their celebrations come to an end. Three moons, three Kunen founders, three holidays… Nah, coincidence.
Rest of the Empire
How is it for the rest of the Empire? It very much depends. If it is mostly Raixher in the colonies, they celebrate like on Raixhla, maybe shifting days slightly to fit their local planet’s solar calendar better.
But what about the member worlds that are not Raixher but belong to other species? Like the Djonee people? It depends a lot on the local culture if they incorporate it, to be honest. As I explained in my holiday post, holidays often incorporate each other in order to more easily assimilate people. So some worlds do their own version of DoD, DoE, and DoR celebrations, but many of them do not, in fact, celebrate it.
Because while they are part of the Empire, the Empire is not imposing their culture on other worlds. After all, that is a sure fire way to piss people off, and pissed off people rebel, and energy spent on dealing with rebels is energy not used to project power into space and be a great power!
Djonte is one world that does celebrate it, though, except for them, Day of Explosion and Day of Return are merged into a single holiday where you do everything before the sun sets, matching DoE, and then the DoR celebrations start after the sun sets and continue until the sun rises.
Mini Practicum
Practicum within a practicum! Some inception stuff going on here…well, I am leaving this to Anne.
(Anne:) Thanks, Vivian! I’ll pick up this discussion of the Tribravery with the story of a primale named Oxhino. His prither (the equivalent of ”father”) was a great chef, and his prither before him, back generations. Traditionally, when a primale in Oxhino’s family turns 10, they cook their first original dish for the DoE as their challenge, pushing themselves to create something new. Oxhino, though, never really had the knack or creativity to come up with his own signature dish. His attempt at 10 was, well, a failure. Although his family was supportive, he could tell his prither was disappointed. The superfamily had no other primale children, after all. Everything depended on him.
For the next few years, Oxhino took on other challenges, but privately, each year he attempted not his own dish but a dish from his foreprithers. He didn’t tell anyone, just requested ingredients on the grocery list every once in a while–anonymously, of course. Anyone was free to add things to the list without specifying who or what they were for.
As Oxhino slowly progressed with his cooking, he began taking more risks, failing more often than not. Finally, though, when he was 19, nearly an adult, he decided that he would never feel fully ready, and what was the purpose of the Tribravery if not to challenge himself? So on the DoD, as he stood in front of his superfamily, he met the eyes of his prither and boldly announced his plans to create an original dish to serve on the DoE.. Silence met his proclamation, as they all remembered his first attempt and had written him off. Then his omulther (the equivalent of “other mother”) cheered him, and the table broke out in applause. The challenge was set.
In the days leading up to the DoE, Oxhino gathered the necessary ingredients. When he asked for three slabs of vleem, his prither nodded. Vleem was a staple of Raixhen food. When he asked for dzol onions, his prither frowned, but they were still often used. But when Oxhino added death peppers to the list, his prither sighed and resigned himself to another failure. A novice like Oxhino had no business with death peppers, he knew, because any hesitation in the preparation from chopping to grilling resulted in such heat that the food was intolerable.
As the first moon set on the DoE and the glow of the sun warmed the horizon, Oxhino got to work. There were others in the kitchen preparing meals for the day, but nothing special. They gave him plenty of room to work and wrinkled their noses at the sharp scent of the raw death peppers, bracing for the dinner when they would have to take a bite before politely pushing it away. Oxhino didn’t care. He had studied this, and he was sure that death peppers would be the secret ingredient to making a unique and stunning dish.
With everything simmering, waiting for the addition of the death peppers, Oxhino took a deep breath, ensured everything was in place, and began chopping with a speed that astonished the family. When had he learned to do that? He moved through the first steps without hesitation, pouring them into the melted butter at precisely the right moment. He flipped them with a growing sense of elation, carefully counting to ensure that all sides were evenly grilled. And then he added them to his sauce, delighted.
At dinner that night, he served the death sauce, as he jokingly called it, on a bed of pasta. He sat with his own dish, and everyone raised their forks and took cautious bites. Oxhino did as well, and immediately spit it out, his mouth already screaming for milk to calm the spice. The entire table chugged their glasses of milk, which his prither had set out without comment, anticipating this. All but prither, that was. He chewed carefully, and after he swallowed, he remained silent as everyone else recovered.
Oxhino couldn’t bear his prither’s disappointment, but to his surprise, his prither smiled.
“That was a bold choice,” prither said. “Worthy of your challenge. I believe you didn’t move the death peppers from the cutting board to the pan quickly enough. Aside from that, this is a fine dish. I hope you prepare it again.”
Pride filled Oxhino, and on the DoR 15 days later, as his superfamily gathered, he stood up and announced his results.
“I failed,” he said. “But I learned, and I hope you’ll all try again with me soon.”
Thus ends the story of Oxhino’s Tribravery and begins Oxhino’s long, arduous journey as a chef. He never had the same knack for cooking as his ancestors, and he never achieved much fame or renown, but he also never forgot his prither’s smile, right before his prither had also chugged his milk.
Summa Summarum
(Vivian:) And that concludes this year’s Christmas blogpost. A holiday for the Raixher that I hope will inspire you to come with your own holidays that equally shape and are shaped by the culture from which they are derived.
Some of you might ask, what season is this in? Well, that depends on which planet you live on, now doesn’t it? 😊 On Earth, it just happens to coincide with winter and the holiday seasons. A third coincidence? It is a Christmas miracle of coincidences! And it is a miracle I am a math teacher because I think that’s the fourth one now.
So now I ask you: if you were to celebrate this holiday, Tribravery, what would your challenge be?
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, God Jul, and Good Tribravery to you all!
Blog image is AI generated but touched up by humans.
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Copyright ©️ 2024 Vivian Sayan and Anne Winchell. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as holidays and their general characteristics are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific ideas such as the Tribravery, Oxhino’s story, and all language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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