Hello Fiction Lovers!
This week I thought I’d talk about including ceremonies and holidays in fiction becuase of Memorial Day. Whenever I see a ceremony/holiday included in a story–whether in a passing comment or actually making an impact on the plot–it always seems to make the world the story is set in more immersive.
People celebrate, they mourn, and usually at some point during the year in an actual culture both things are recognized in the form of a holiday. Whether that means celebrating a new year or remembering the dead cultures set aside times to let people break away from their daily lives. How that gets manifested and what gets deemed important enough to get a holiday can provide great insight into a culture and the people belonging to it. They can also help show the divides between people if different cultures are mixed together and don’t celebrate the same things or different ways. Holidays also help show the passing of time in a story and that the story isn’t being told in a vacuum–there is a larger world that this story is a part of and is affected by.
Ceremonies can also be good to include or mention, becuase they can also help show what is important to a culture and add more depth to worldbuilding. They help mark things that don’t always happen annually but are still important to a society such as becoming an adult, getting married, and reaching a certian point in education or religion. Depending on what is emphasized during a ceremony will also reveal things that culture values, which could be anything from honor to cunning to being a certain gender.
Holidays and ceremonies give something for characters to look forward to and talk about as well as showing their values and how well they might know a culture. It makes the worldbuilding more believable and immersive. Though that isn’t to say that you should just include a holiday/ceremony without any rhyme or reason. Both are shaped by culture and so they must fit into the culture to make sense and add to the world.
Feel free to post any comments if you have anything to add or think I missed something, and let me know if you have any questions! I wish you all happy reading and writing. 🙂