Stay Anzora!

An ardent appeal to the navigator's most friendly star

Overview

A celebration observed by sailors all over the Occulus Sea, but most prominently by the peoples of the Free City of Centrum. The celebration concerns the steadfast location of Anzora's Star, or the North Star. As the star is important for navigation during the night, it is no surprise that lifetime sailors would like to celebrate its existence and to encourage it stay.

The Navigator's Star

Anzora's star is important to navigators (in the northern hemisphere) because it is the easiest one to find. It's relative brightness to other stars in its vicinity help its case. The star marks true north, and knowledge that it is at true north helps out immensely when determining cardinal directions. It's distance above the horizon can also be useful for determining one's latitude.

I swear this is a secret cult or religion or something.

— Jordan, Messenger for Hire

Making an Appeal, and a Meal

Centrum sailors make an appeal to the north star by singing to it some songs. These songs describe how glorious the star is and how thankful they are to have it around. This appeal is to be made at midnight on the 21st of the month of Luna. A midnight feast is also prepared in honor of the star and its importance to sailing. This meal is often enjoyed on ships as they lay anchor either in a harbor or out at sea. Having the celebration onboard the ship is considered to bring the ship good luck. While the kinds of food aren't necessarily restricted- a sailor has what they can get- cheese is considered a must.
Why cheese? The true reason was known once, but now there are many ideas as to why one must eat cheese as part of the appeal to Anzora's Star. One of these ideas is that Anzora, the first one since the The Great Collapse to use the star to navigate at night, loved to eat cheese. This would mean that eating cheese is more to acknowledge the person whom the star is named after rather than a demand by the star itself.

Note(s) from the Archivists:

We would be in serious trouble if the stars decided to leave. - Archivist Rena