What Holidays and Holy Days Are You Celebrating?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

With American Thanksgiving now behind us, the world of Second Life marketing and sim creation is now full-on Christmas. For the next month or so, we will be inundated with Christmas merchandise, Christmas events, Christmas installations, and people wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. I'm not myself Christian in any real or certainly conventional sense (although I love the meaning of Christmas -- "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."), but Christmas is "my" holiday, in the sense that I celebrate it as a largely secular holiday. It's woven into the fabric of my particular cultural background, and is an inextricable part of me and my memories.

But Second Life is, of course, an enormously diverse platform, and is home to a wide array of people of different nationalities and, it is too easy to forget sometimes, belief systems.

I'd really love to hear about what those of other cultures and religions are celebrating in Second Life -- now, or in general. Are you celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Yule? Did you celebrate Mawlid, Samhain, or Diwali? If so, how do you observe these in our virtual world?

Tell us about your holidays, particularly around this time of year! Pictures would be lovely too! And if you have a special way of celebrating Christmas in Second Life (excepting the wearing of ugly sweaters, of course), share that too!

[Love Zhaoying]

Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, New Year's.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, New Year's.

You celebrate these in-world, Love? What does that involve?

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

You celebrate these in-world, Love? What does that involve?

Being present.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Being present.

Lol. Being present, or being a present?

Thanks for sharing, Love. That was inspirational.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Lol. Being present, or being a present?

Thanks for sharing, Love. That was inspirational.

I wish! I wish I had read the entire post before replying! Of course, I made bad assumptions about the original post when I replied. 

Even a dunce can be inspirational, I proved it!

[Chaser Zaks]

The two big ones I celebrate are Christmas (Despite being agnostic atheist, I was raised christian, and my family also celebrates it. It's still part of my heritage.) and Halloween.

Christmas I decorate Quiddity and my house parcel. I may put on a Santa hat as it gets closer to Christmas.

Halloween I also decorate Quiddity, but often skip my parcel. I often will use my more spooky avatars more than I usually do. Spooky month is my favourite.

The most I do for Thanksgiving is Pilgrim hat and maybe a pumpkin here or there.

I've wanted to get into New Years, but finding people who'd want to celebrate new years with my poor decorating skills and "totally not stolen from new york ball" is Abit difficult.

Forth of July suffers the same problem as new years. And Easter has a whole different thing of "gotta find something to give away".

I can't think of any other holidays that I celebrate.

[LittleMe Jewell]

I am in no way religious.  In RL, Christmas decoration only go up if the kids are coming home for the holiday.  No decorations for any other holiday at all. 

SL isn't much different:  Very seldom will I put out any decorations for any of the holidays.  Though I will usually put on a Christmas outfit a few times in Dec - primarily because I'll get them as gifts and want to actually use the cuter ones.

[Luna Bliss]

It's a great excuse for a party!    

[Scylla Rhiadra]

21 minutes ago, Chaser Zaks said:

The two big ones I celebrate are Christmas (Despite being agnostic atheist, I was raised christian, and my family also celebrates it. It's still part of my heritage.) and Halloween.

Christmas I decorate Quiddity and my house parcel. I may put on a Santa hat as it gets closer to Christmas.

Halloween I also decorate Quiddity, but often skip my parcel. I often will use my more spooky avatars more than I usually do. Spooky month is my favourite.

For some reason, I've never really got much into Hallowe'en -- not since I was of trick or treating age, anyway. And I think two relatively recent developments in the way it is celebrated in both SL and RL are contributing factors now: the sexualization of costuming (everyone is a "sexy nurse" or "sexy zombie" these days), and the tendency towards more graphically frightening and gory decoration. Those have been there, I guess, for as long as I've known the holiday, but they are much more pronounced now, and they have meant a shift in the holiday away from kids and towards adults. In terms of marketing and merchandise, certainly, the focus has increasingly not been upon children, but rather upon those in their late teens and twenties. For me, Hallowe'en has always really been about kids.

I wonder, thinking of Christmas decorations, whether there isn't something a bit refreshing about places that don't do themselves up for the season. I love the holiday, actually, really I do, but I do get bored of seeing Santa everywhere. It's something of a relief to find oneself in a lovely winter sim that doesn't feel the need to deck the halls.

As for the other holidays you mention -- yeah, meh. New Years in particular has for me always been a more private event, celebrated quietly (but very enjoyably) with a partner, lover, or a small group of friends.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

27 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I am in no way religious.  In RL, Christmas decoration only go up if the kids are coming home for the holiday.  No decorations for any other holiday at all. 

SL isn't much different:  Very seldom will I put out any decorations for any of the holidays.  Though I will usually put on a Christmas outfit a few times in Dec - primarily because I'll get them as gifts and want to actually use the cuter ones.

Like you, Christmas is for me mostly secular (although I have attended midnight mass on Christmas Eve on occasion, or gone to Christmas pageants focused upon the Nativity -- mostly just for the ambiance). I don't think I've ever decorated for it in SL though. This year, I might get a nice, traditional and conservative tree for my boathouse. I live in a tropical sim, however, and it just feels a little odd to be doing the traditional thing.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

28 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

It's a great excuse for a party!    

Why do you require an excuse?

[Luna Bliss]

People in past times were much more connected to nature, and it was scary to see nature die. Starvation was possible and people worried if they'd make it through the long, cold winters (in parts of the world where the Xmas party developed).

This makes the perfect time for a celebration, to encourage hope.

Not sure how Christ came to be involved in it....need to read more History.

I could easily get depressed this Holiday season, with all the people dying from Covid, and not being able to safely visit my family. But I think instead I'll drink warm tea and listen to some of the most beautiful Xmas songs, and feel glad there is hope for the future and even for appreciation in this very moment.

Edited December 2, 2020 by Luna Bliss

[Orwar]

   Here we celebrate most of the regular Christian holidays, such as Christmas (although we still say 'jul' - 'yule'), Pentecost, and Easter. The other big two are Valborg (Walpurgis - primarily in university cities) and Midsommar (midsummer). We also observe Allahelgonahelgen (all hallow's weekend, consisting of allahelgonaafton and allahelgonadagen; all saints' eve and all saints' day - although by the younger generation it's been largely replaced by Halloween). We put a lot more emphasis on Yule eve than on Yule day (i.e. the 24th rather than the 25th), but other than that it's pretty much the same as elsewhere.

   Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis eve) still contains a lot of pre-Christian traditions, and though the name is in dedication to Saint Walpurgis, its roots come from Germanic paganism. Its purpose is to ward off evil spirits and revenants, through lighting large fires and making lots of noise. Through getting drunk, obviously. 

   I'm also not sure about whether it's just a typical Swedish thing, but we put a lot of emphasis on advent as well, and Saint Lucia's day. Which again draws a lot of pre-Christian tradition into it; carrying light into the darkness that is Winter.

   ... Going to elementary school in Sweden and being forced to wear a white gown (even as a boy!) to do a Luciatåg. Bleh.

   In more secular traditions, we have Surströmmingspremiären, the third Thursday of August, when the season for sour herring kicks off, and Mårten Gås, when you .. Eat geese, in southern Sweden. I don't know, they're kind of weird down there. And then there's the death day of King Gustav II Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus), on the 6th of November, when we remember the demise of one of our greatest kings by eating pastry. And listening to Sabaton.

 

   Oh, speaking of pastry, we do have our own thing for Fettisdagen - a day when, before lent, you fatten up by having a semla. 

  Which is a wheat bun with cardamom in it, cut open to fill it with almond icing and then whipped cream. Some absolute blasphemers have created deviant creations with vanilla cream, jam, or even putting it in a wrap bread or an ice cream cone, and unfortunately we have not yet produced a law to incarcerate them. Scoffs.

 

[Scylla Rhiadra]

38 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

Not sure how Christ came to be involved in it....need to read more History.

There may possibly be more to it than this, but Christianity, especially once it began to focus on the converting the Gentiles, proved very adept at accommodating and/or absorbing the rituals, holidays, and even deities, of other religions. It was something the Romans did too. So, Christianity decided that "X" pagan festival, or icon, or what-have-you, was really Christian. It made it much easier to convert people. And I think that this is what happened to Saturnalia.

41 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

I could easily get depressed this Holiday season, with all the people dying from Covid, and not being able to safely visit my family. But I think instead I'll drink warm tea and listen to some of the most beautiful Xmas songs, and feel glad there is hope for the future and even for appreciation in this very moment.

Good plan. I'm going to miss some of my traditional Christmas activities, and of course my family, but I think that making it a slightly more "cosy" Christmas will work.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Why do you require an excuse?

Have to budget the wine and party favors.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

25 minutes ago, Orwar said:

I'm also not sure about whether it's just a typical Swedish thing, but we put a lot of emphasis on advent as well, and Saint Lucia's day. Which again draws a lot of pre-Christian tradition into it; carrying light into the darkness that is Winter.

I think most people outside of Sweden know about, or would at least recognize, St. Lucia's day. It produces some lovely and striking images. Maybe we'll be seeing you wearing this? (Or maybe I should just pester @Saskia Riekoto buy it)

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/NS-St-Lucia-Crown/18521633

The others I didn't know about. Interesting that Swedes still commemorate Gustavus Adolphus! I can't think of a parallel in the Anglosphere -- is there a day for George Washington, maybe?

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Have to budget the wine and party favors.

Sure.

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Sure.

Unlimited wine? Let's party!

[Orwar]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Maybe we'll be seeing you wearing this?

   It's on my list. Well not that particular one, but doing a Lucia shoot. Possibly wearing a black gown, though ...

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

No, I am not. I am not overly religious and I do not become so on certain days of the year.

My dad got me an angel candle last year. I was like... how inappropriate.

 

 

 

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

ALthough I think I can get on board with Kwanzaa

[CaerolleClaudel]

None, in any life that is currently available to me. And I really, really, really hope there is no afterlife, but I guess I will find out when I finally get to leave this one.

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

[Maitimo]

I'm more pagan than Christian, though I don't belong to any RL groups or participate in any festivals, I just do my own little observances at home.  And of course everyone else I know follows Christian holidays so it's not really possible to escape Christmas or even do it on a different date. And the Samhain I celebrate is very different from modern Halloween. It's the pagan/Celtic new year, with a focus on getting rid of the bad stuff from the previous year and achieving good stuff in the year to come.

I do belong to a pagan group in SL and we loosely celebrate the 8 main festivals there; the Spring & Autumn Equinoxes, Winter & Summer Solstices, plus Imbolc (February 1), Beltane (May 1), Lughnasadh (August 1) and Samhain (November 1), generally on the nearest Saturday and in the form of a themed party. It's more a celebration than a religious observance.