Thursday, December 4, 2014

A Concultural Detail: Seasonal Decorations

In the Tatediem-Dairwueh-Bryatesle societies - given that we look at them during a timespan during which the technological level roughly coincides with modernity here, seasonal decorations are not 'coordinated' the way ours are - different families celebrate slightly different parts of the festive calendar, partly depending on what religion they're affiliated with, but partly also depending on the religions' festive calendars' quirks. Some families may have quite ostentatious decorations to commemorate some saint - not even necessarily a saint of their own religion. Thus, one family may have already hidden their decorations by the time another one brings theirs out.

Greater variation in the decorations is also found, as different aspects of the religions' narratives and teachings are emphasized by various types of symbolism - colors, numerology, shapes, etc, all can signify different things. The symbolic language is fairly uniform over the different Tatediem-Dairwueh-Bryatesle religions.

Of course, celebrations that occur during winter more often involve arrangements of light in various ways; celebrations during summer sometimes do - obviously restricted to the dark hours of the day - or arrangements of colorful things.

Fragrances are also an important type of symbolism, and burning a big bonfire with some fragrance-inducing firewoods in it can also be a way of indicating one or another belief.

Of course, most people don't care that much about the actual beliefs, but more about the traditions themselves.

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