The Last Sunset

"Cut your wheat and make your bread,

and with your friends, break it.

Shed your shawl and shave your head,

for Bluestar soon will bake it."

-- Folk rhyme commonly recited on the Last Sunset. The first stanza reflects the harvests and feasting that are still a vital part of contemporary celebrations, while the second stanza's mention of shaving one's head refers to an old tradition long fallen out of favor.

Each year on the 36th of Dawning, Aotra reaches the part of its orbit in which its position between Redstar and Bluestar means the planet sees constant daylight. On the evening before, Aotrans worldwide mark the final sliver of night with a festival called the Last Sunset. With feasting, gift-giving, and dancing, communities celebrate the end of the harvest season and ready themselves for the next eighty days of unescapable heat and light.
The Last Sunset marks the commencement of Aotra's solar summer. In the vast majority of Aotra (the poles being the notable exception), the extreme heat of solar summer means that natural agriculture is nearly impossible. Because of this, there is a long-established tradition of spending the few weeks before the Last Sunset preserving newly-harvested crops: jarring jams and marmalades, curing meats, pickling vegetables. Such preserved foods are similarly a traditional gift given at the Last Sunset, a custom which serves the practical purpose of ensuring one's community members have enough food stocked up for the solar summer. Over the last several centuries, as magical support for agriculture has become more effective and universal, this tradition has become less and less necessary; when fruits and vegetables are available year-round, there is less need to preserve and stockpile the yield of the Dawning harvest. Nevertheless, the tradition remains. In rural areas, both the act of preserving food and sharing it with one's community are still vital to Last Sunset festivities. In major urban centers, most people are unlikely to be doing any jam-making or pickling of their own, but many still stop by markets to purchase good cured meats and dried fruits to share with their loved ones.

History

The Last Sunset is a festival whose history stretches back far enough that it features in some of the world's earliest literature; under various names, it has existed for at least ten thousand years. Contemporary traditions around the Last Sunset draw their roots from a broad sampling of the various ways societies have celebrated this celestial event throughout history. These different cultural interpretations of the Last Sunset all have their fair share of unique elements, but many common themes thread through. For instance, the association with the end of the harvest is near-universal; across millennia, the many, many cultures that have developed Last Sunset traditions of their own have latched onto that connection (the exception being, yet again, cultures of the polar regions).
Modern Last Sunset traditions draw most closely from the Lischin and Vassian cultures. Both have long practiced the traditions around food preservation and sharing which feature so prominently in contemporary Last Sunset celebration.

Observance

The Last Sunset's date, the night of the 35th of Dawning, is a constant; the Aotran calendar is based upon the Aotra's orbit and its position relative to its suns, so this and other solar holidays' dates are fixed. While feasting and gathering in recognition of the Last Sunset usually takes place in the afternoon and evening of the 35th, preparations for the events of the night can begin as early as a week in advance. Of course, the associated end-of-harvest preparations done by those in farming towns-- most specifically, the preservation of fruits, vegetables, and meats-- begin much earlier than that. Those typically commence three weeks in advance, beginning around the 20th of Dawning, though sometimes sooner or later depending on the state of the harvest.

Type
Solar holiday
Date of Observance
35th of Dawning, annually
Status
Official holiday under the Co9