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Secular Holidays: Coeur d'Ennui
Relevant Knowledges: Peoples and Cultures, Politics
The following holidays are celebrated throughout Calantyr and thus in Coeur d'Ennui. They are national holidays and not associated with any particular faith.
Founding Day/New Year
((January 1))
This holiday marks the official founding of the Kingdom of Calantyr, when the Prince of V'Tavia married the daughter of the Corian leader and the treaty bringing the unified kingdom into existence was signed by the sovereigns of V'tavia and Coeur d'Ennui. Those princes chose the New Year holiday as a good omen for the dawning of their newly united kingdom, so the two holidays of New Year's and Founding Day now fall on the same calendar date, and are used as interchangeable terms in common speech.
Founding Day celebrations are gala events hosted by the greatest houses in the cities. Thousands of white candles are used to light enormous ballrooms until dawn, and the swirling court dances that continue throughout the night are considered a prime opportunity to display wealth and ostentation. Entire streets in the Old City are blocked off for the commoners to dance the cold night away as well.
Clove-studded oranges, hot spiced wine and cider, and candied chestnuts are associated with this holiday. By tradition, dancers on Founding Day wear at least one piece of clothing or ornament in the Duke's rich royal blue. It is also said that kissing a member of the Duke's Guard on Founding Day will bring good luck for the coming year, a superstition that the guards encourage selectively.
The Duke's Birthday
((September 7))
The birthday of Duke Caradoc Teflin, currently reigning sovereign in Coeur d'Ennui, is celebrated as a holiday throughout the city. Bread and beer are distributed freely from guardhouses and government offices, and some of the noble houses give out more expensive sweets as a means of demonstrating their loyalty to the Duke (and, of course, their wealth in being able to afford such generosity). No executions occur on this day, and by tradition the Duke pardons one criminal for each year of his life -- though these are usually thieves and other petty offenders, rather than more serious public enemies.
Swordsday
((November 15))
The celebration of Swordsday is, in part, a legacy of the Willowfields' less peaceful history; the martial spirit it is meant to encourage is still an everyday part of life in the Marches, and the holiday is rather less light-spirited there. The basics remain the same in both parts of Calantyr, however.
Swordsday began as a means by which knights and nobles rewarded their underlings for developing skill with bow and sword. Each knight sponsored archery competitions, individual bouts with wooden mock swords, and riding contests for all the able-bodied men (and a rare few women) who cared to enter; the winner was given a purse of silver shields and the opportunity to sign on with the knight as a man-at-arms. At the bigger contests, held by the earls and viscounts, winning could mean a knighthood, and hireswords from all across Calantyr would compete for a chance to win spurs under Gildorath or Ravenrose.
This tradition survives largely unchanged in the Marches. In the Willowfields, where knighthood has become a lesser strand of the nobility and, in some quarters, is more about the prestige of the title than prowess on the battlefield, Swordsday rewards are now more often money than titles. Still, the contests attract a wide range of participants, and are popular among spectators as well.
This holiday is also celebrated in most of the Twelve Kingdoms, where it is used primarily by knights seeking promotion and mercenary captains demonstrating their companies' skills in order to win lucrative contracts for the following season.
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