Holidays?

[Clarence Matthews]

With halloween fast approaching I was wondering how many people include holidays in their storys? As long as time is passing your charcters would eventually run into a holiday, how would it effect your writing?

 

[Jess A]

Well, with regards to contemporary fiction, stuff set in the present, I would be likely to involve Christmas for instance. If it had a driving point towards the plot or characterisation. Halloween can be a lot of fun, especially if the novel is set somewhere like America.

In fantasy, I generally refer to Midsummer holidays, harvest time or Winter Solstice, and I create my own little festivals to go with it. It's a thing I build into the world and relate to the religions of the world. Of course, conflict or character building has to occur, otherwise it's just me indulging rather than being constructive. These festivals can be used to signify the passing of time, though they don't necessarily need to.

 

[Ireth]

Halloween (or Samhain) plays an important role in two of my series, both of which are heavily steeped in Celtic mythology. In one, the protagonist is turned into a vampire on Samhain night in 14th-century Scotland; in the other, the heroine is kidnapped by a Fae on Halloween in 21st-century Britain, and their wedding is planned for Midwinter Night. The sequel to the second one involves the same heroine and her family re-entering Faerie, again unwillingly, and being held on trial on Beltaine/May Day. The day is significant not because of the celebrations, but because of the balance of power between the Summer and Winter Kings, which affects the plot greatly.

 

[CupofJoe]

Like I tend to use Midsummer and Midwinter rather than existing holidays and add others as I need them.
Once I've used Samhain or All Hallow's Eve in a contemporary story but getting the details "correct" according to some Wiccan friends meant that after [I think it was] 11 rewrites I gave up and smacked my head against a wall for half an hour [it hurt less]...

 

[Clarence Matthews]

Thank you for your replies everyone! I was wondering since as the calendar progresses we hit holidays whether we like them or not. I as your story progresses and regardless of what the characters are doing their time frame moves through a holiday does mentioning so add anything to the story or is it just fluff unless it specifically effects the plot?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

It hasn't really come up in my writing so far, and I hadn't really thought about it. But if you're going to look at holidays in traditional medieval fantasy, consider that there weren't many historically. Not what we'd call holidays. You might have had a festival of some sort, but you weren't getting the day off being a serf etc.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[SeverinR]

Holidays or celebrations revolve around planting/harvesting, the solstice, Spring/Fall.

I did create or modify holidays I found for elves to fit my world. Haven't looked at the other races.
The only holiday I used in a story was Faerieluck (elves play tricks and jokes on each other, celebrating with the faeries.)

Springrite-celebrating birth, Fallrite-remembering the dead and death, Winterfest-sharing and giving of gifts.

CM: the only holiday I mentioned, the speaker was warning the inviter that it better not be a Faerieluck joke, so it wasn't really fluff, but not exactly plot molding either.
Holidays, unless specifically a point in the book, make the worlds more real. Like Harry Potter's gift giving time, it isn't a great importance(other then him getting his broom.) but it shows a common bond between the make believe world and the real world.
Also the more the people celebrate, the more likely society is prospering. I doubt the lowly workers, with barely enough to eat, celebrate holidays to much differently then other days.

 

[Chilari]

Bread and circuses: with enough food and enough holidays, a huge population can be kept contentedly oppressed. Given that there's a theme of oppression in my NaNo novel I plan on having a few holidays involved - which will give me the chance also to contrast the experiences of my characters at the holidays, and also chart one character's economic decline by his attitude towards the holidays. I'm also considering using a holiday which marks the king's birthday as a great time for the riot I'll be including. Don't want to overdo it, though, so might stop it at three, or have others but not make them significant.