Cold Foods, Heliobi, and Injustice: A Study of the Custom of the Fire Taboo Festival
A research report on the folkloric origins of the Fire Taboo Festival on Xianzhou by a member of the Intelligentsia Guild.
Cold Foods, Heliobi, and Injustice: A Study of the Custom of the Fire Taboo Festival
The Fire Taboo Festival is a huge day in the Xianzhou Alliance's calendar each Star Calendar year. On this day, each Xianzhou ship stages a grand gala festival that is simulcast across all friendly factions in the universe. Best wishes are sent between ships using the Yellowbell Resonance System, and each delve also holds its own uproarious party.
On this day, every household in the Xianzhou Alliance will pre-cook berrypheasant eggs, each shell intricately engraved with gorgeous patterning that symbolizes auspice. Perhaps back in the olden days, the Xianzhou people would engrave these eggshells themselves, but over the generations, people gradually began to buy up machine-engraved eggs instead.
The Fire Taboo Festival certainly seems lively to Outworlders, but there are also some strange restrictions to follow: No fireworks may be lit, no non-essential fires may be started, hot food is forbidden, and even the mention of the word "fire" is to be avoided.
During this time, the Xianzhou people spare no effort in explaining how the Fire Taboo Festival commemorates those who passed during the Flaming Catastrophe in the Heliobi* Wars. It also celebrates the great hero who burned themselves to cinders to save the Xianzhou alongside the Flint Emperor (legend has it the hero would later be known as the Reignbow Arbiter). In honor of these heroes, the Xianzhou people have chosen a day to avoid anything to do with fire (that is, the heliobi fire-spirits).
Note: I am unsure what parasites of pure energy such as heliobi are called on other planets. The Intelligentsia Guild records at the Astral Ecology School call these formless creatures "Spirits of Light," "Formless Fiendfire," or "Soul Possessor."
This sounds like a plausible origin story. The only problem is that the Fire Taboo Festival pre-dates the Heliobi Wars and even pre-dates the Xianzhou Alliance itself. This extremely ancient tradition can be traced back to even before the days of the Xianzhous' launch.
The tradition of eating cold foods and avoiding fire is an ancient one among humans. Similar festivals occur on most human-occupied planets that exhibits seasons (despite the lack of actual seasons aboard any Xianzhou ships, the tradition remains). Comparing the festivals of these different civilizations reveals certain interesting commonalities.
On Stockirk, fires are banned for seven days before the start of planting seasons, and only cold meals are eaten. Legend has it, this commemorates a hero who fought off invaders but was burned alive for treason after the enemy won. It was not until fifty years later that she was finally exonerated.
On Tamagawajosui, fire is banned after the end of the cold season, and only cold meals are eaten (a custom which has disappeared following extensive urbanization there). It's said that this commemorates the 23 farmers and the county magistrate who died from hunger strikes against taxation.
On New Seljuk-7, fire isn't banned until Chunfen, but plenty of fowl eggs are boiled up (just as on the Xianzhou) to eat on the day of the festival. This is another legacy symbol of switching hot with cold foods. This is said to commemorate a loyal patriot who was killed by a treacherous official.
It's clear to see that all of these festivals — including the Fire Taboo Festival — are ultimately ceremonies to worship spring's arrival, with its longer days and shorter nights. The banning of fire is to revere the natural stars that shift with the seasons, and bird eggs are eaten to symbolize those stars (as these eggs tend to be round and nurture life, of which progeny can fly, and whose birdsongs welcome the sun).
In fact, despite the various festivals around the universe, if we trace back the origins to their source, we can see that the ancients were really only interested in three things: When the sun shines, when the rain falls, and who died in injustice.
In all kinds of historical literature, literati and historians have spared no efforts in constructing such a narrative: A hero who was framed for fighting corruption during the Theophany Era, was later freed and fought alongside the Flint Emperor to launch a self-sacrificial attack on the Wingweavers — and THEY later ascended to become the Reignbow Arbiter.
Let's put aside these academic disputes about the origins of Reignbow Arbiter for now, and discuss a rather simple question: Why is it that people choose to transpose good heroes who died unjust deaths onto these ancient existing festivals?
The answer is simple. When faced with tyrannical, deceitful, and manipulative forces that can alter and shroud historical record with misinformation, the general public seems helpless. And yet mortals can wield a very mortal weapon: The re-writing of heroic deeds into songs of metaphorical justice, which are then interlaced into rituals of the sun and the rain, recasting them into a brand-new allegory.
This is how the powerful are prevented from banning the passing down of such a righteous song — unless they could extinguish the very stars, evaporate the very rains, stop the very seasons from changing themselves, and stop the very birds from singing out.