ForestBoard

(Now I will speak normally, with o and u)

3 holidays in particular are celebrated differently in MB:

New Year’s Eve has two weird traditions. Firstly, in the city of Calisota (which was the headquarters of MB’s old Cold War-era space program), students at UC-CalSo (University of Cothon — Calisota Campus), the best STEM school in the country, drop themselves off of a bridge into a small lake in front on the college. Although no one has died in the 60 or so years the tradition has been going, a student did break his back in the 80s, a kid broke his leg once, and two students have broken their arms. Although the Seniors are the ones who fall off the bridge, it’s the Juniors who organize a special prank in the water of the lake. Past pranks have included pouring rubber-duckies into the lake, putting eco-friendly soap into the water, putting plastic spikes in the lake, and putting a giant cloth film right below the surface of the water.

Secondly, on December 29th each year, the city of Sacrovilla holds two unique celebrations. The city was founded by Italians and to this day is the second largest city in the Italian Community, but it also holds a medium-sized Asian population (from China, Dàguó, New Dàguó, Taiwan, Kuronami, Japan, and India), and it had some Greeks living in the city as well during Medieval times. Although the Greeks have long since disappeared, a Greek tradition called Rouketopolemos, or rocket war, as been brought over. During the Rocket War in Sacrovilla on December 29th, two churches fire homemade rockets at each other, trying to do the most damage to the roof and bell-tower of the opponent. Meanwhile, the Chinese immigrants brought over many of their traditions from Chinese New Years, most notably the Lion Dance. Thus, on December 29th, right around New Years, two churches fire rockets at each other right as a Lion Dance takes place in the streets below, leading to chaos and silliness and fun times.

Thirdly and perhaps more simply, the Phoenician Jews still use the original Jewish calendar, which means that Yom Kippur, Rosh HaShanah, Sukkot, and Shmini Atzeret are celebrated in the same month as Passover in the spring, a half year from when they are normally celebrated.

Finally, during Lent in the Venetian community, a tradition called The Haunting of the Linens (aka the March of Fabric) is celebrated. It started back when the festival of Carnivale was banned by the rulers of the Italian Community for being too promiscuous a holiday, especially considering it marks the beginning of the somber Lent. The first night of Kent, however, the people of one small village slowly crept into the Town Plaza on a foggy night, wearing the only Carnevale-worthy costumes that weren’t burnt: satin sheets. The people repeated this every night for Lent, in different towns and villages across the Venetian and Italian Communities, and year after year they did this, and over time this tradition became associated with the common, working class. Even though this tradition was formed in response to cruel Lent bans, it gradually became associated with Lent’s message of non-extravagance and simple living and Jesus’s message of living a peaceful life, not too fancy or greedy. Today, people still put in satin and linen sheets and creep into their plazas and parks during Lent, and carry with them a message of simply, communal, anti-greedy living.