StarCitizen:Day of the Vara
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The Day of the Vara is a holiday in the StarCitizen:United Empire of Earth (UEE) held annually on October 27. The holiday remembers and honors the dead, it often involves public and private gatherings adorned with the colors black and green. The Day of Vara is often celebrated with costumes and scary stories.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite RSI</ref>
History
The Day of Vara originated in 2557 around October 27, after the Template:Em, an exploration vessel, disappeared while orbiting the second planet in the then-recently discovered StarCitizen:Hades system. The last communications from the Template:Em were from captain StarCitizen:Tisiphone Heptane regarding her initial impression of the ruined alien cities. A few hours of the transmission the Template:Em onboard systems ceased transmitting ship status reports. Search and Rescue crews were dispatched the next day but no signs or wreckage of the Template:Em was ever located.
Since the disappearance of the Template:Em rumors and have spread among haulers and travelers that something malevolent lurked in the Hades system. In some stories the Template:Em and its crew would haunt the system on the anniversary of their disappearance, some people avoid traversing the system around that time. All manner of stories that prey on the fear of space travel are attributed to the Template:Em: a derelict ship whose frozen crew would come back alive while searching it, an undead crew that would secretly board passing ships and sabotage them. These horror stories themselves have become a fixture of the Day of the Template:Em.
One of the famous stories involves traveler who disguises themselves as a member of the Template:Em crew, this inspired travels to dress as a member of deceased to protect themselves from bad luck when traveling space.
The first Day of Vara event was held on StarCitizen:Terra on October 27, 2593. Many of the attendees dressed as StarCitizen:Imperator Ivar Messer I, who had recently died, ostensibly to ward off evil. Songs and celebrations of the Imperators demise indicated otherwise. This was lost on the standing Imperator, StarCitizen:Deacon Messer II, who had the UEE use footage of the events as support for the government and encourage more Day of Vara celebrations the following year. It was officially established as a holiday in 2595.<ref name=":0" />
Traditions
The holiday involves public festivals adorned with decorations in black and green and private gatherings to remember and honor the dead. Celebrants dress in costume, often as people who have passed away. People swap scary stories, especially pertaining to mysterious incidents in space. It is seen by Humans as a day that gives equal weight to the joy of life and the macabre.<ref>Template:Cite RSI</ref>
List of previous events
| Year | New paints | New helmets |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | "Black Magic" - Guardian, Polaris, Sabre | - |
| 2024 | "Purple Haze" - Carrack, Syulen, Terrapin, Zeus Mk II | - |
| 2023 | "Ghoulish Green" - Corsair, Cutter | - |
| 2022 | "Ghoulish Green" - Herald, Mule, Vulture | Hill Horror Reborn |
| 2021 | "Ghoulish Green" - Buccaneer, Caterpillar, Dragonfly | - |
| 2020 | "Ghoulish Green" - Cutlass | Fieldsbury Dark Bear series, Hill Horror, Snarling Vanduul |
Gallery
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Trivia
- The Day of the Vara coincides with the real world festival of Halloween, which originates from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated over 2,000 years ago to mark the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. The Celts believed that the boundary between the living and the dead blurred during this period, leading them to wear costumes and light bonfires to ward off spirits. Later, the Christian church established November 1st as All Saints' Day, or "All Hallows, making the evening before, October 31st, known as "All Hallows' Eve," which eventually became "Halloween". Originally, people carved turnips, and sometimes beetroot or potatoes, into lanterns with scary faces to ward off evil spirits. In the 19th Century, immigrants to the U.S. adopted this tradition and discovered that pumpkins, a native fruit, were much easier to carve into detailed designs. <ref>Cambridge school: Origins of Halloween</ref>
References
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