Newsletter: Dec 25/02

Fantasy Holidays

         Good day everyone, and Happy Erastide! What? You don't know what Erastide is? Why it's the midwinter holiday celebrated by residents of Eddings' world of the Belgariad and the Malorean. Many fantasy stories incorporate holidays in the narrative for different purposes. Since this is the Christmas edition, it seemed like an appropriate subject.

         Like in real life, holidays in fantasy can be used to commemorate important events in the world. Of course, in a fantasy story, the important event of the past the holiday celebrates may well become an important event of the present, so celebrating a battle or the death of a powerful necromancer, or the birth of a mighty hero might be good forshadowing of new events of great relevance to the story. Of course, the holiday can also be used as an introduction to important past events that may not directly impact the story, but which are important to know to understand events later.

         Holidays can also be a good way to set the scene for a story. If you begin a story with a harvest celebration, odds are good that the setting, at least initially, is a farm region. If your protagonist is feasting in honor of the founding of a city, it's pretty likely that it is the city she's in right now. In a similar manner, holidays can be used to differentiate different races and cultures. Elves probably celebrate things related to the moon and the seasons, while Dwarves would likely be unaware of such things, and would be more likely to celebrate events important to the race and their individual clans. Of course, making holidays for these races in your story that break these tradtions would also go a long way to distinguish your characters from stereotypical members of the races as seen in other stories.

         Of course holidays can be a central feature of a story in their own right. Heros often meet at the fair, and the fair is normally conducted at holiday time. A grand national celebration is also the perfect thing for the villains to try to ruin, or can serve as a great distraction to let your villains, or heros if need be, run amok. A holiday celebration is the perfect time for an ancient wizard or sage to come down from the mountain to warn the nation of a coming doom, since everyone's going to be there anyway.

         So, when you are writing your stories, take a look and see if a holiday might be appropriate. They're always fun, and can have so many uses.

Colin Back on the Ghost Roads