New Britannia Cultural Festivals & Holidays

Very good point. It's natural for cultures to integrate over time. But, will that be so true of the native population of New Britannia? Perhaps....but I suspect there's something more to them than meets the eye.

Richard and Tracy have been very cagey about this and have directly said we actually don't want to reveal ourselves. Perhaps not to all of them, so maybe there will be a few localized areas that are friendly to us and our earthly customs.

 

Or.... they'll love us for that. We'll be spending tons of money and doing our part to boost the New Britannia economy That might even cause the natives to embrace earth holidays despite whatever feelings they may otherwise have about earth. Its good for business!

Well, that comes down to personal preference/RP. Sure they (RG/Tracy) can create an environment which has some degree of hostility/suspicion towards the outsiders from Earth, but then its up to the players to decide how to respond to that. Even if there's a general feeling that they should hide their identity, thats not going to necesarily apply to everyone. Just look at the demo video, right away we see an earthling who is more than willing, at least initially, to identify themselves as being from earth. The response wasn't even hostile or one that would lead you to think you absolutely need to hide the fact that you're from earth. Just sort of a mild suspicion which would perhaps imply that you can prove them wrong about their assumptions

 

You're only going to bring more stress into their meger lives and introduce bills and credit card debt. For the love of god leave these people be. They don't deserve what Christmas really brings.

 

The sailors that brave the treacherous waves in the Bay of Storms are as salty as the seas and as hard headed as the barnacles below their ships. They believe in little, but what they do believe in...they believe mighty hard. They believe in themselves and their skill. They believe in their ships. They believe in the stars that they sail by and perhaps most of all, they believe in luck.

In the stars, they follow Noroc; the three legged rabbit. Sailing towards any of the three legs is good luck. Sailing in the direction of the missing leg is never done...terrible luck.

Upon shore, the sailors set a day aside for Noroc. The day comes in early March which marks the five month raining season which makes the Bay of Storms even worse to travel through. The festivals are found in port villages around the Bay and feature barrel upon barrel of rum. Oddly enough, the sailors also exchange gifts. Symbols of luck are very powerful and one or three should always be on one's person. A horseshoe, an acorn, a bronze coin (minted on only one side), a red feather, a vial of salt and a Cat's Eye stone are popular amongst the sailors. Gifts of a black feather, a fang of a snake or coal are considered "bad luck." People that give gifts like these often find themselves at the bottom of the Bay of Storms.

Will Noroc's Day catch on throughout New Britannia? The sailors that make the Bay of Storms their home don't care. More luck for them...

 

TH: <LAUGHS MISCHIEVOUSLY>
RG: <LAUGHS MISCHIEVOUSLY>

 

I like the holidays that tie together the ending and rebirth aspects. With both being an experience shared by all, there would likely be similar celebrations all around, but may be slightly different based on regions/local cultures.

I'd also like to see something tied in to the heavens. Seeing as Sun/Moon affect magic, I'd think there would be celebrations to celebrate or beseech those heavenly bodies.

I'm still reading through all of the forums, so forgive any ignorance now and in the future. The best way to learn is to dive right in, so here I am!

 

I think the key is near time, not exact day. So a few weeks of holiday around the real holiday timeframe.

 

The arguement of intergration is one that takes quite a bit of time. Generations I would argue.. and from the tone of the story so far it sounds to me like avatars are only JUST arriving. If players want to celebrate their native holidays that's entirely up to them.. but please take note of the thread title.. which is "New Britannia Cultural Festivals & Holidays"

As it seems people like the first major holiday I'll update OP shortly.

 

Updated the OP. It struck me that Daedelus would be the ideal symbol for January. In discussing heraldry for NB.. the symbolism Daedelus follows the same themes of endings and new beginnings. So it would be appropriate to acknowledge Daedelus in the name. Also I think it gives some meaning to holding the celebrations at night.. particularly when Daedelus is visible.

The pilgramage seems also to hold more significance to me in incorporating a theme of travel.. especially through lunar rifts. Academics and mages in particular may find some extra significance in the holiday since magic has always had some relationship with the moons (now singular).

Perhaps it should be tradition for mages to host the celebrations. Fireworks anyone?

 

So do you think people in the United States would celebrate Thanksgiving the same way if they didn't get off work for it? Or do you think the British Royals are irrelavent to the history, culture and traditions of the British people?

I'm just Joe average, and I don't know a lot about history or culture, but I know the above statement is incorrect. I'm not trying to say you should close the thread down, I'm just suggesting that if you knew more about the world then the ideas you had would have more meaning than they currently do.

Unlike speculating about game design, this is CULTURE. It's like if NASA said "What do you think the culture of extraterrestrial life forms on a planet we know nothing about is like?" Then they started making up a ton of celebrations and days in their spare time until they had a whole laundry list of STUFF. Until about a year later when they land a robot on the planet and find out that YES, there is life on the planet, but NO they don't celebrate summer solstice because 200 years ago their entire planet was nearly destoryed by a meteor shower that originated directly from their sun!

Carry on.

 

Perhaps I should taken a different approach.. but part of the whole point here is that Richard and Tracy (or anyone else at Portalarium) aren't likely to make up every last little detail that isn't absolutely critical to the story they want to tell.. and we aren't here to say that this is the way it's going to be or must be.

Think of this more as brainstorming and encouragement. For the RP portion of the community this is the kind of thing they can really get into. It may well be that some ideas Richard or Tracy may say "no we can't do that because of a b and c" and that's fine.. but we may also have their blessings on some or if we're lucky even all. We just won't know until it happens.

What we can be sure of though is that if we do nothing.. that's probably what could happen. Nothing. This is an effort by the community.. for the community.. and as such we do not need to limit ourselves because we don't have every bit of official lore yet. As always Portlarium rules.. but they have always encouraged community effort.

Now if we want stuff like social status to play a role in traditions we talk about we can always do that too. How that status is defined or whether or not it's accepted is not a discussion for this thread.

 

Why would that be Kings day? That's when U.S. said NO to a king!

I say
Release Day + 1 year - New Years Day
Dec 12 - Kings Day (first day of Alpha- the king is dead? Heck no, Long live the king!)

 

Odd isn't it? Well the idea I had for King's Day.. and that name is subject to change.. I just couldn't think of anything I liked better.. was a celebration of Lord British's b-day.. well Richard Garriott just happened to have been born on July 4th. Assuming at least that part of the wiki on him is accurate.

 

Well, looks like we'll have a "thanksgiving" type holiday, at least unofficially for RP, as they added these to the Store:

Taming Turkey Call and Cornucopia

Snippet:
No holiday table would be complete without its own cornucopia centerpiece! But it is more than just an attractive table decoration, this Horn of Plenty generates a random edible item or ingredient per day (food, fruit, berries, mushrooms, flour, egg, etc.). During the Fall and holiday seasons there is a percentage chance of other kinds of items being generated.

So it appears that New Britannia follows the Earth calendar even though the scale is different, so the months just line up regardless.

 

heh well that's probably the best way to do it anyway. I did do some thanksgiving brainstorming at one point.. I had assumed there would be a harvest festival/holiday. Digging through my notes here.. it was suggested the November holiday relate to humility and being thankful for what you have and the celebration of simple things.

Some of the ideas included wearing simple clothes. Avoiding jewelry and makeup. Simple or comon home cooked foods including a traditional dish.. perhaps lamb. Someone had mentioned "cabbage soup for all!" but I suspect that was 100% serious.. more like 85-90%

I'm interested to hear what people think about mages conducting the festivities in January and incorporating Daedalus into that holiday.

 

The latest update seems to pretty clearly indicate that can be earth holidays in New Britannia.

Not a "thanksgiving type" holiday, but specifically Thanksgiving itself. I believe this makes sense. Travelers from earth come to New Britannia and they of course bring their holidays with them.

So it seems there's no issue with celebrating earth holidays in New Britannia. They don't necessarily need to be masked or made non-earth or renamed to be more generic and less "earthy"

 

That's a bit of a stretch. It's an obvious promotional to raise funds. You can't really use that as established lore.

Now being from Earth you can celebrate whatever holidays you like. That's not an issue. What we're talking about here are NB specific holidays. What would THEY celebrate? There is no basis in any Ultima or SotA lore to date to suggest that the people of NB would celebrate Earth holidays. Why should they? They know less about Earth than their own history.. most of which has been lost.

No one is going to tell you the player not to celebrate whatever you like.. your character is from Earth and has Earth knowledge and traditions. That's cool. People living in Novia are NOT from Earth.. they have no knowledge of Earth holidays.. certainly no wide scale knowledge.

The whole point in discussing NB traditions is creating an immersive culture.. of which avatars are not apart. If the local population is running around celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas, Easter and whatever else.. that frankly just isn't believable.

 

Day of Fools where people play practical jokes, children dress as old people, fruit is painted in deceiving colors.
Day of the Ancestor where candles and offerings are placed at ruins and the family tree is recited.
Day of Fortune where people surreptitiously place a gold coin or gift in another person's pocket.
Day of the Shattered Moon where no lights are lit and people only eat cold and preserved foods.
John Barley Day when the first beer from the last season's barley harvest is tapped.
Buttress Day when everyone works to repair and fortify a town's defenses.

 

Yes its to raise funds, but since its in-game (as opposed to the t-shirts for example) I'd say that definitely does make it part of the established lore. I don't think its a stretch at all to say then that earth holidays, such as Thanksgiving, have come with those from earth to New Britannia. Else, we wouldn't be seeing things like this in game.

Not sure I agree. Think about a mass # of immigrants from earth coming to New Britannia. These immigrants all bring with them their traditions and holidays. Given the number of earthlings in New Britannia (owning real estate and living among the NPCs) I think its reasonable to think they'll be a significant presence. Given that, its actually very believable that the traditions and holidays of those from earth will end up mixing into the culture already there and possibly be adopted by those there and visa versa.

Ultimately, I say this a bit tongue in cheek of course.... But if you want to talk lore I think the above is a reasonable line of thinking. Unlike some fantasy games where the world is completely distinct from earth, here earth is a big part of the story and so there will be influences and connections that you wouldn't see in a typical fantasy game I would guess.

 

The only thing the presence of a turkey tamer establishes is the existance of turkeys. There is absolutely nothing there to suggest any lore one way or another.

Think about the local populations attitude towards avatars.. and how long the avatars have actually been in the world. Probably not very long and they're not exactly being welcomed with open arms to the point where it's been suggested that more avatars would want to keep their identity as such a secret.

Do you really think that under that atmosphere.. a small, shunned, minority population is just going to have their holidays and traditions be widely accepted by the majority over a short period of time? It's entirely unreasonable. Just because there's a "lot" of us doesn't make us popular.. or a majority. Also the kind of integration you're talking about would take generations to spread.