Earth Day Tradition / Ritual in Lance Breaker | World Anvil

Earth Day

Celebrated at the end of every Ymir Year, Earth Day celebrates the time when humanity first set foot on planet Ymir. This took place ████████ after the Starseed vessel first arrived in orbit. During Earth Day, the population receives Holiday Rations and most have a day off. Those at work have their wages doubled by the government, a bonus that is excluded from taxation.   Earth Day celebrations focus on both the departure from Earth, and the first step taken on an alien planet. It's the closest thing to New Year's Eve that Ymir society knows, because even scientists can only approximate what date it would be on Earth. The loss of time connection with Earth has upset people more than anticipated, which makes this day of celebration also a day of grief for many Earthborn. For Ymirborn it is merely a day of celebration.   To celebrate, people will cook old Earth recipes and listen to music from Earth. The Science Department is rumoured to celebrate by listening to messages sent from Earth, and sending their updates back. However, it is said that due to the technical nature, they do not share these messages with the public. Some claim it really is to make sure that if Earth ceases contacting Ymir, the population will not have an existential crisis.  

Ymir Years

Because Ymir is tidally locked, so no day-night cycle, and has an orbital period of a mere 32 days, there is no proper way to tell time or even years. As such, an artificial calendar was created, which are called Ymir Years. These have approximately the same length as Earth Years. Under the current design, it would take 1875 Ymir Years on average to end up approximately 1 day off the Gregorian Calendar.   Seconds are the same length, but Ymir Days are 25 hours, to better fit human biological cycles. A year consists of 10 months of 35 days, so every year starts on a Monday. 2 out of every 3 years have a weekless leapday, which is when Earth Day is celebrated. When a year has no leapday, the last sunday becomes Earth Day. Every 30 years the 29th year also has no leapday.   Due to time dilation, it is impossible to know for sure what date it is on Earth. As such, the choice was made to just start the year on the day of first landing. Other relevant dates that were considered, were the day of arrival, day of first Awakening, and the day that drones landed to help clear a landing site. However, those were all judged to be of less emotional value.
Date
Leap Day (leap years)
Last Sunday of year (non-leap years)
Celebrated Since
End of first Ymir Year
Festivities Duration
All day
Acknowledgement
Society-wide
Government Status
Official Holiday

Government gift
2x Holiday Rations
Work status
Untaxed double compensation


Cover image: City Sunset Night by Artapixel

Comments

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Jul 4, 2021 04:30 by Bart Weergang

Excellent explenation what Earth day is, and how it feels to the people who arrived there. I also like how you explain how time passes on Ymir.

Jul 4, 2021 08:24 by Michael Chandra

Part of me is feeling like I'm padding wordcount by merging those two... -,- But then again, time is a social construct here, so I guess it also is a tradition.


Too low they build who build beneath the stars - Edward Young
Jul 4, 2021 07:40 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Oh I love the problem they have telling time and all the emotional pain this causes to people :D I have a similar idea where people go to another world but because of the time in between they can't tell the "real" date and so go into crisis every year around Christmas and the New Year...

To see what I am up to: my Summer Camp 2024.
Jul 4, 2021 08:26 by Michael Chandra

The loss of time partially is to not have to reference any Earth dates. ;) But tbh, it does make sense that some people get melancholic around Earth Day, because of all the loss that comes with having voluntarily left all of that behind. Not to mention that by the time they arrived at Ymir, everyone they knew on Earth was dead already.


Too low they build who build beneath the stars - Edward Young
Aug 13, 2021 13:54

Very interesting article. I can imagine that for some it must be quite hard to have no idea anymore of what date it equals on earth anymore. Also funny that the celebrate with "luxury rations " :p   I wonder though if the earth still sends messages would it be possible to at least determine the earth year if it the lightyear distance is taken into account?

Feel free to check my new world Terra Occidentalis if you want to see what I am up to!
Aug 13, 2021 14:13 by Michael Chandra

Yeah, they know the distance in lightyears so the year is easy. I'm not going to make it up though. =P


Too low they build who build beneath the stars - Edward Young
Aug 13, 2021 14:43

You could say it is classified :p

Feel free to check my new world Terra Occidentalis if you want to see what I am up to!
Aug 13, 2021 16:24 by Michael Chandra

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Too low they build who build beneath the stars - Edward Young