How shall we celebrate the hoilidays?

[Grosseschnauzer]

Isimud and I started a discussion within the Ministry of Culture and Education concerning the recently adopted holiday law.

TNP LAW 23
Holidays

Cognizant of the role of shared national events in shaping and maintaining the culture of a region, and mindful of the importance of a region's history and the lessons it may contain, The North Pacific hereby recognizes the following annual holidays.

1. The first day of January shall be known as Remembrance Day, and shall provide an occasion for Nations to reflect upon and remember those players who have left the region and the game of Nationstates.

2. The twenty-sixth day of May shall be known as Manumission Day, and shall provide an occasion for Nations to commemorate the end of the delegacy of Pixiedance, and celebrate the return of a democratic government to the region.

3. The seventh day of July shall be known as Constitution Day, and shall provide an occasion for Nations to commemorate the ratification of the Constitution of the North Pacific.

4. The twenty-eighth day of July shall be known as Liberation Day, and shall provide an occasion for Nations to commemorate and celebrate the overthrow of Great Bight, and the return of a native government to the region.

5. The thirteenth day of November shall be known as Creation Day, and shall provide an opportunity for Nations to commemorate and celebrate the establishment of that first and greatest of games, Nationstates; as well as provide an opportunity to enjoy and extend fellowship to our counterparts throughout the NationStates communities.

6. The twenty-third day of November shall be known as Founders' Day, and shall provide an opportunity for Nations to commemorate and celebrate the establishment of the first official forum of The North Pacific, and the establishment through it of the community which has kept The North Pacific as the preeminent region in Nationstates.

I'm not sure whether the election calendar will revert to normal for the next elections or not, but November 13th would be just a few days after when elections would be held if the normal schedule is resumed, and November 23rd would be just after that. So at a minimum appropriate activities need to be organized for those holidays during this term. We should also discuss what sort of activities should be planned for the remaining holidays, so that we can develop both common and unique events for the various holidays.

Isimud offered the following ideas:

A few thoughts on promoting awareness of the holidays.

  1. Post the holidays in the Calendar of Events.
  2. Use the Regional Update billboard to list each holiday as well. Perhaps with a brief descriptive phrase.
  3. Post them on the RMB.

I made a specific set of suggestions -- one for common use with all of the holidays,

One idea I am thinking of that would be common to all holidays is a flag-raising ceremony at 0000 GMT on each holiday in front of the main government complex in Magicality City.

We don't have a flag anthem yet, but Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" might be appropriate. Then an appropriate government official would mark the holiday with appropriate remarks. For Creation Day, that might be the Delegate; for Founder's Day, it might be the Prime Minister or even a forum administrator (given it commemorates the founding of TNP's first official forum.) Each of the six holidays would have a different official making the keynote speech with the flag raising ceremony.

and a second in particular to address Creation Day (November 13) and Founders' Day(November 23):

Second idea that I have is that we organize a fair to start on the 13th and end on the 23rd of November. The fair would invite participants from all regions across Nationstates to have displays, entertainment, an what have you, The fair would be under the auspices of the Minister of Arts and Entertainment. The fair would end on the 22nd.

The following day, there would be a special fair day featuring the nations of The North Pacific, celebrating the birth of the community of The North Pacific. The closing ceremony of the fair would be a flag lowering ceremony, and a final celebration maybe to the beat of "All Night Long," with dancing and whatnot in the streets of Magicality City.

That would be one way to assure that both holidays are associated with the joy of the creation of Nationstates and The North Pacific. Some of the other holidays are better suited to reflecting on the history and experiences of the the nations of The North Pacific, just as I think these two holidays are "birthdays" that should be a joyous celebration.

A Nationstates World Fair would fall under the jurisdiction of the MoAE; but the problems is that both of the November holidays come after the dates elections have been scheduled, so thw work would have to be started beforehand so the world's fair idea can be properly organized.

The MoCE would be interested in feedback to these ideas and in hearing other ideas for the Creation Day and Founder's Day holidays, as well as for the other holidays (January 1, May 26, and the two Julky holidays. But this is as good a time as any to figure out what would be the best way to celebrate the other holidays.