New Year's Meet

Part 3 of my interview with the focus holder of The Ocean's Friends, continued from

It's a sort of a game, though there's a serious aspect to it as well. The Rays converge to take the focus and give it to the ocean. While we're all in one place, it's also a chance to talk and exchange news. We're not a family the way a Tiderider mother ship is, so it's not often we see each other. The New Year's Meet is the only other dependable time, and there are so many others around that it's hard to find a moment quiet enough for our ceremony.

New Year's Meet? I'm sorry, what is that?

It's an annual gathering of Tideriders. The beginning of the year is also when the winter winds begin to die down, and all the families use the last of them to sail the mother ships to Barkold.

Oh, the trade gathering. That, I've heard of.

The trade gathering comes after. The Meet is only for Tideriders, whether they carry cargo or passengers. It's a chance to meet and socialize with other families without the pressure of scheduled deliveries. The trade gathering is business, and it's open to any freesailors who carry freight.

And that's still happening, even after the sabotage?

Clarification: in 2053 Vol the Unity's Dregs threatened Barkold with an Eruptor during the busiest part of the trade gathering.

Why would that stop us? Barkold was home to the Meet when it was the farthest island to the east, not west. It wasn't associated with the new year then, because that would have required sailing against the winds both ways. In fact, Tiderider families have been gathering so long that no one knows when the Meet started.

Well, not before that Gap was explored deep enough to find Barkold, for certain.

Oh, but yes! The Meet wasn't always on Barkold. Tideriders and islanders had more in common when there was no place to stand where you couldn't smell the ocean. In those days trade wasn't quite as vigorous as it is now, and at the end of a long voyage sailors were thirsty for new faces to talk to. Mother ships coming to an atoll anchored close by and sent the entire family ashore to visit, staying for days. If two ships happened by at once, they'd probably extend that time even longer.

Do you think that's how the Meet began? Ships coming to the same island by accident, then deciding to do it again on purpose?

It probably wasn't a decision as much as a habit. Ship travel is driven by wind and currents, so it's not such a surprise that families would regularly find themselves in the same place at the same time. Repeated often enough, a habit becomes a tradition. The New Year's Meet may well be the oldest tradition in existence.

And so it's at this Meet that the other Ocean Friends come to get the focus from you?

No. As I said, it isn't an ideal place for our ceremony. It's crowded, and there's too much else going on. But it is a good place to reconnect quickly with many known Friends, and discover new ones. We get to share our love of the ocean's moods with others who understand. That's enough satisfaction that the Rays aren't actively pursuing the focus during the Meet.

How do you know another Ocean Friend when you meet one? Is there a particular greeting you use?

Not a special greeting, exactly, but we know each other by the way we way we look and act when we talk about the ocean. The Rays have phrases that can identify themselves to each other during a conversation.

Are all the other Friends also Rays?

This interview continues in

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While islanders celebrate the turning of a new year in their own ways, Tideriders have a more unified traditional observance. The timing of New Year's Day usually coincides with the ending of the strong winter winds that blow from the northeast. Tiderider mother ships take advantage of the situation to converge on the far western island of Barkold to hold the largest trade event anywhere in the islands. It begins with several days of social calls between docked ships known as the New Year's Meet. Tideriders often do meet at various ports during the rest of the year, but such encounters are random and unplannable. The Meet on Barkold is the only regular opportunity that sailors have to interact with other families without being driven by a tight shipping schedule.

History

The origin of the Meet is impossible to place firmly in time. Throughout the Oceanic Era, ships that crossed paths or anchored at the same island spent time socializing as antidote to the long voyages spent surrounded by the same people. Because of the cyclical nature of seasonal winds, ships often repeated these encounters on a yearly basis. Although the Meet is now firmly located at Barkold on New Year's Day, it was already a regular gathering before that island was found within the Great Eastern Gap (now the Great Western Gap).
The Meet in its current form most likely took shape after the atoll evacuations at the end of the Oceanic Era. Once the Cluster Islands were settled, Barkold represented the westernmost visited island instead of the easternmost, and the unfavorable transition from summer to winter winds forced the gathering date to move halfway around the year.

Participants

Because it is a celebration of culture, the Meet's attendance is restricted to Tideriders. Even families who don't participate in goods trade will come for the sake of spending time in the company of their own people. At the end of the Meet, the trade families prepare for the arrival of the "untethered"--that is, boats not associated with a mother ship.
For the subset of Tideriders who are members of the Ocean's Friends, the New Year's Meet is the best opportunity to connect with one another and share their experiences with the Ocean. Their ongoing focus hunt is suspended for the duration of the Meet, because the chaos and crowds make it difficult to hold a quiet and private ceremony.

Primary Related Location

Barkold

Related Ethnicities

• Tideriders