Night of the Blinking Stars

When the Stars gift their chosen ones

One of the last celebrations of the year, the Night of the Blinking Stars tends to be the most awaited holiday in the city. It is a magical period of time, when people spend time together and gift each other presents as a way to show gratitude to their loved ones. It is also the time when some chosen individuals might get rewarded for the things they have achieved that year.
While the Night of the Blinking Stars lasts only for three days on its own, the preparations and celebrations related to it start a few weeks earlier, though with each passing year, some (especially Corporations) start preparations earlier and earlier, encroaching on other holidays. Not many know that the the stars really are watching and so, for most of the people, this celebration is just that, a celebration, during which they might get a little longer breaks during or after the work.

The preparations

For the period of the preparations, the shops, buildings, and streets start to be decorated with the ornaments related to the Night of the Blinking Stars, mainly the visages of the night sky (or at least as close to the one for the people who almost never see it due to the bad weather and pollution), images of normal and falling stars, thousands of multi-colored blinking or dimming lights, various occult depictions of constellations, and (what is most important to most) the presents, big and small.
During that period, the most fun activity is visiting various holiday markets organized by Blocks and Corporations. For the people living in the Streets, this might be one of the very rare chances to visit the lowest floors of those places, which (unless speaking of some special cases) are open to all visitors. There, one can buy the products created by the denizens of those buildings, either the ones they specialize in, or the ones related to the holiday, so ornaments, toys, and gifts. Here, one can also visit hundreds of stalls with either local or holiday dishes, such as many sweets (mainly cakes, and chocolate- and ginger-based ones), various soups, dumplings with almost any stuffing, spiced wines, eggnog, and different foods on sticks (such as synthetic meats, bugs, mysterious gray blocks, all covered in chocolate, too). One can also listen to many songs related to the Night of the Blinking Stars, the ones they will be hearing in every shop, workplace, and even some streets, for the next few weeks.
But the markets are not the only way the city celebrates this holiday. It seems that every Corporation, Block, and Street has its own small celebrations related to it. It may be decorating the place with one's friends, or coworkers that sometimes turns into a competition between the gangs or departments, stealing or burning a flammable ornament created by an enemy Block/department/gang that for some reason often takes the form of a horned farm animal, sightings of a giant cat-like Weird stalking just outside the city (this one usually has to be hunted by the people living on the Outside, or else it'll start hunting them instead), nightly scream-singing matches that are sometimes interrupted by low-level Caroler Weirds. Aside from those ones, there are many more seasonal Weirds that push out or drive the usual ones into hiding for this period. In some cases, that means some peace for some people, while introducing new problems or dangers for others.

The celebration itself

Once the clock strikes twelve and the 25th of the last month of the year ends, the true celebration of the Night of the Blinking Stars begins. There are many traditions related to it, but it all started in the same way:

The part that never changes

When the 26th begins, the sky will always clear up, no matter the weather the moments ago and no matter if some kind of Weird or Wrong affects it. From now on, until the end of 28th, it is always night, and every so often, there will be a falling star falling somewhere, usually in the city. Said comet always falls in front of someone Chosen by the Stars, revealing some kind of gift in front of them. Depending on the circumstances, that gift might be something they might need right now or during the upcoming year, it might be something they need, something that will change their life or help them keep it unchanged. If there is some kind of Wrong affecting the world, the gift might be something that will help save it. However, the gift can only ever be used by the one Chosen by the Stars. If it is stolen, lost, or given away, as long as its owner is still alive, it will always come back to them. But if the owner is dead, it will disappear forever.
At first, this was the only thing that happened during the Night of the Blinking Stars.

The part that changed over time

Over the years, people expanded on the Night of the Blinking Stars. First, why should only a few people receive the gifts during that time? And so, a new tradition was born, where people started buying or creating gifts for others, so (mostly) no one gets forgotten during that celebration. Of course, various places understand this tradition in different ways. For example, on the Streets, it is customary to at least give gifts to one's loved ones, family, and the possible Family or Gang, though there are some generous souls that also give gifts to those who have no one to give them one.
In the Blocks, the tradition of gift-giving is usually limited to one's floor or community. Corporations tend to either create roulette, where one gets assigned randomly who will they have to create a gift for and who will give them one (or more), create a competition to make gifts to one's bosses and underlings, a competition for the most generous department or the most generous person. It should be remembered that each one of those comes with a system of judging each employee on each of their gifts and that their next year's salary depends in some part on the evaluation of those gifts.
When it comes to the Outside, the people there have the most varied gift-giving traditions, different for every community.
But gifts are not the only tradition that appeared over the years. The second most common tradition is a dinner with close family, friends, and loved ones. Once again, the dishes that people prepare on that day and their number vary between the cultures, but the dinner itself almost always takes place around the time when the night would start on the 27th of the month. This comes from the fact that the activity of the Weirds during that day tends to be the strongest, and so it is best to stay together inside with the ones we love and/or care about.
Another quite popular tradition is to watch various seasonal movies together. The number of them grows every year, though there are quite a few classics loved by many that can be watched every year, either on TV or in cinema, and on some rare occasions when the TV stations or theaters announce a few days before they don't want to show them the X-th time in a row or don't think there might be any people willing to watch them, it even led to riots and quite a few deaths of the ones responsible for those decisions.
The tradition that started gaining popularity lately is one born of urban legend that says that seeing at least 12 falling stars on the first day of the Night of Blinking Lights increases the chances of one's most desired wish being fulfilled the following year. Though each next star witnessed after the 12th one decreases those chances, with the 25th one making it impossible for that wish to ever be fulfilled.

Who gets chosen

Since the Stars observe the people all the time, a thing known only to a few, once in a while, they might choose their favorites. It could be the people who achieved something great during that year. Maybe they were heroic, or generous. Or maybe they were especially cruel or killed the people in the most spectacular way. The exact criteria depend on each of the Stars. Other ones who get chosen are the people who might have not achieved anything but there might be some kind of potential in them. And so, they might require some nudge in the right direction or something that will finally wake them up. Something in the form of a gift from an unknown "sponsor". Others might be in a tough situation, facing impossible odds, a threat, or an obstacle, and their gift might help them overcome the adversity. And sometimes, the most random people get a gift from the Stars, who are just curious what they will do with it. Will they use it for selfish or selfless reasons? Will it corrupt them or will they overcome its temptations? No matter their choices, it might be interesting to the ones always watching.

Location

The whole world, both the city and the Outside

Date

26-28th of the last month of the year, each year. Even if there is something weird happening to the months or the time that year, the holiday will take place at the same time

Who celebrates it

Willingly or unwillingly, everyone

Possible Weirds appearing

The Winter Witch, the 3 Spirits of Stars, the Miser, the Last Flame, the Ballet Soldier, the Home Protector, the Holiday Thief, the Carolers, the Winter Cat, the Horned One, the Snow Daughter, the Sleds to Nowhere, the Plagued Antlers, 3 Forbidden Boxes, Brother Gnomes, the Hay Goat, the Star that Fell

History

The Night of the Blinking Stars has been happening for over 200 years now. There are some unconfirmed rumors saying that this is when the stars really started watching people. During the first years, it occurred mostly on its own, when on the day it happened, stars just fell from the sky, gifting the ones they picked as their chosen for that year. But since the number of the chosen people was always really small, and more people wanted to celebrate this holiday, over the years, new traditions started being integrated into this special day.

The Winter Witch

Whenever one of the Blocks or Corporations organizes the first market for the Night of Blinking Stars that year, something unusual happens. The holiday music, the sounds of the crowd, the cheer, and the bustle of the market stalls, all coagulate into the sounds that wake up a powerful Weird, the Winter Witch Hai'ram. There are some songs describing her and the few "holiday celebrations" she prepared for the unsuspecting people (such as a Night of Blinking Stars hit "All I want from Stars is You). Each year, she causes a different type of chaos, mayhem, and bloodshed and some consider her defeat to be a real beginning of the period of this holiday. According to what she says and the effects she had on the buildings she "invaded" over the years, it is possible, that uncontained, she would be able to infect the growing area with her influence, possibly taking over the whole city. Historically, though, she never managed to reach outside any of the buildings she appeared in before being taken down.
Lately, some Blocks and Corporations decided to push back the first markets even earlier, to see if there is a chance to have one of them without the Winter Witch appearing. All of those tries ended in failure, only making her appear earlier, too.

The anti-star movement

There is an organization, that sees the gifts coming from the Stars as something evil. Something that is here only to make people depend on the help coming from outside, instead of facing the threats on their own. And so, they try to create devices that would intercept the falling stars before they reach their Chosen recipients before the gifts bind themselves to their owners. Alternatively, they hunt down the people who already got their presents, hoping that if they destroy all of them, fewer stars will show up the next year. Some even tried to aim at the Stars instead, trying to shoot them off the night sky. Unfortunately, other people celebrating the holiday saw that as another fun new tradition, and now, the Night of the Blinking Stars is also celebrated with fireworks. And when it comes to the reactions of the Stars, this makes for an even better show for them, so more and more of them decide to watch the struggles of said organization against them.

Put the Stars Back in the Night of the Blinking Stars

Some people believe that the current, new traditions of the Night of the Blinking Stars take away from its original meaning. That the greed and consumerism took over something that should be a time of celebration of the ones who got Chosen by the Stars. That ornaments are merely false imitations of the Stars and that the eyes of all people should be focused on the night sky instead. There's no need for markets, no need for fake gifts, these participation trophies, ones given to the sore losers, who are not interesting enough to the Stars. Of course, most other people make fun of these "purists" and even the Stars seem to enjoy each new tradition more and more.