#sant padraig

[grandboute]

Pátrún sona naomh !

Avec un peu de retard, avec Julien le Viking, un Irish Stew et de la Guinness

[ankulometes]

A Year in Contemporary Albion: Mawrth

Even while abroad, they can keep up with the progress of whichever team they support in the troedbel or tribwar. Whether or not they’re in the Cartrefi, they can probably also celebrate Sant Padraig’s Day on Sadwrn 6th Mawrth. The Eireans are known throughout the world for their warmth, hospitality, and off-kilter sense of humour. There are large Alban diasporas across the globe, especially in the Americas and Australia, and most are originally descended from Eireans. Their national day is very popular everywhere. Not least because the celebration mainly involves getting wildly drunk on Guiness and dancing frantically to the incredible music for which their island is justly famed.

Just as is the case on Sant Daffyd’s Day, there is a big race meeting in the form of the Celtanhom Cup. There is also the Corcaigh Pasha Festival in Eirean itself that takes place over the whole weekend from Gwenesdyth to Sabath. It’s a good thing too because the “Paddis”, as they are often still referred to in Albion amongst the non-PC, excel at and are generally mad keen on equestrian sports of all kinds.

After all of that, everyone still has two weeks of the Pasha holiday to recover. In sport, it is the turn of snwchar to steal the limelight. This elaborate tabletop game first emerged during the 43th cantury as an after dinner pastime amongst officers in the Alban army. Its name comes from a slang word for a cadet in the officer programme in the country’s military academies.

Owing to these military origins and the sport’s intimate association with the Third Empire period, it is, along with croucad, one of those Alban curiosities that is far more popular in the Cymanolad and southeast Asia than in continental Europe. It has an especially strong following in Tsina, Thaigwlad, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapura. Indeed, due to the often tense nature of Albo-Tsinese relations (not to mention Tsina’s relations with its near neighbours), there can be a bit of a Cold War edge to some matches.

It is also partly due to these military roots that, much like troedbel, the game has long been a professional sport. It has consequently enjoyed a strong following amongst the working classes in Albion. The Alban army is not known for a concern with the niceties of amateurism, being a well established and comparatively meritocratic path to social advancement for the more brutal, thuggish, and uneducated members of society from any station. Despite the game’s genteel after-dinner pretensions, it is most widely played in decidedly ungenteel snwchar halls. These are large, darkened, halls filled with tables, booze, smoke, and the tac-tac of billiard balls. (As private members clubs, they have a limited exemption from the 4416 smoking ban).

During the World Championship, all the best players on the planet (male and female alike as there has been no gender distinction in snwchar competition since the sixdys) descend on the Creusabal Theatre in Diwelvalan. Dressed up to the nines inside its hushed and darkened hall, they duke it out for the title and some hefty prize money over the last 3 weeks in Mawrth. The tournament enjoys extensive television coverage and a large global audience. Over the last couple of sinades, the most successful individual has been the charismatic and controversial Bryto-Eiranic wizard and “people’s champion”, Rheinyn O’Suileabhain.

For school children, university students, and politicians, the summer term — known as Trinitath — starts on Lundyth 1Ʌth of Mawrth. Rather than simply returning to Gwinmynach, the politicians spend Trinitath in devolved sessions that meet in Dubhlaine (for the Eirean members), Dineidyn (for the Godans), and Caerdyth (for the Cymrans). Naturally, the Brytans continue to use Gwinmynach for this purpose.

The constitution of Albion is a little closer to something resembling the European Union in your world, although still very different from that (being a lot more archaic). Each country (and some siars) issue their own laws. Despite taking immediate effect, the overarching law of Albion is, in effect, constituted by a body of treaty-like documents that must be ratified by each nation during these devolved sessions. They often define a series of commitments and/or constraints which the countries of Albion are more or less free to satisfy in their own way.

The Brytans have their saint’s day for Sant Sior on Sadwrn 23rd March, during the first weekend of Trinitath. However, celebrations are somewhat more muted than for the other national saints. In part, this is because the limelight is hogged for most by the final tribwar fixture in the Celtic Nations Cup. However, it is primarily due to a sorry history of having been hijacked by right-wing Brytanic nationalists over the years who used it to glorify what they saw as their rightful domination of the other countries of Albion and spread their hate-filled, racist propaganda. There are regular attempts to reclaim it but memories of rioting jack-booted skinheads waving the flag of Sant Sior during the late decdys and early eldys are still too fresh for many. Besides, a far more positive self-image has been projected in recent years following the advent of the Pan-Celtic Festival during the same period.

This celebration of all things Celtic (mainly literature, music, and history) is a self-conscious attempt to revive the ancient Celtic Conference that was held annually at Alesia in Gawl. It occurs annually over 7 days from the 1th April and is hosted on rotation between all those participating regions who in the modern day wear their Celtic identity as a badge of pride, including Albion, northern and western Gawl, northern Sbaen, and Portiwgal.

[ankulometes]

A Year in Contemporary Albion: Fevuarhi

The last day of the Fevuarhi half-term holiday is marked by Candelmas, which signals the end of the epiffani season in the church year. Christianity — and religion generally — isn’t such a big deal anymore but Albion is still a global pilgrimage destination and an important centre for the faith. Candelmas is one of the services that takes place during the course of the year that retains the capacity to draw believers and non-believers alike. And tourists. Mainly because they tend to be so pretty. Many people are drawn to the candlelit evening services held in the more glamorous churches during which the air is filled with incense and moving choral music. You don’t really have to be a god-botherer to appreciate the aesthetics.

The most spectacular service of all takes place in the incredible abbey church at Gwinmynach. Since 4380, it has been broadcast on television and radio by the ABC every year. Many people watch or listen at home. From an historical religious perspective, as in your world, candelmas was a celebration of the presentation of Christ at the temple. In contemporary Albion, it is generally regarded as a “family day” with a focus on children. Adults will visit their parents and young families might spend the day with grandparents. There they will share a meal the cornerstones of which traditionally consist of cured meats and belbara. These are a deep-fried, enriched bread coated in cinnamon and/or sugar and stuffed with fruit preserves and/or nuts. They’re doughnuts, basically. But damn good ones. A bit like Florentine bombolini, to which they are related.

Candelmas also used to be considered an auspicious day for baptisms and the like. A lot of people don’t get their children baptised these days but there is still a tradition that godparents (if there are any) or close friends of a family will give a gift to any children with whom they are particularly associated. Historically, it would be swaddling or towels. These days, it is conventionally meant to be clothes of one form or another.

Lundyth 13th Fevuarhi, the day after Candelmas, is the Feast of Sant Iosef and Sant Cara in the church calendar. It is also the first of the Ʌ bank holidays that are interspersed throughout the year.

The holy husband and wife team of Iosef of Arimathea and Cara are the patron saints of Albion (above Sant Sior of Brytan, Sant Padraig of Eirean, Sant Andras of Godan, and Sant Daffyd of Cymran). The day has long been of more political than religious importance. Although most people just use it as an excuse to go out for a slap-up meal at a tafarn and get hammered, far too many have taken to painting themselves red and waving the Pendragon flag in the sinades since they eldys.

In addition to being the national patron saints, Sant Cara and Sant Iosef are also the patron saints of married couples. Despite the fact that their feast day is celebrated during the depths of winter, it was traditionally considered to be a blessed day for weddings. Many still choose to hold their ceremony on this day and not merely because it is a public holiday. Even for husbands and wives who opted for a more clement time of year, the day serves as a kind of anniversary on which a special effort is made to express love and gratitude to one’s spouse. In Albion, it normally means going out to a tafarn, having a slap-up meal and getting hammered, just the two of them together.

The half-term holiday ends and children go back to school the day after on the Mawrdyth. There they spend hours being force-fed a diet of half-baked indoctrination concerning the nation’s glorious history all the while making awkward, fumbling attempts to get the attention of that special other person they’ve silently admired from afar for ages. And all because Mawrdyth 14th Fevuarhi is Sant Folant’s Day in the Pelagan calendar. Unlike yesterday, it is dedicated to all those who are seeking love. Couples everywhere make a special effort to be romantic which, in Albion, normally means going out to a tafarn, having a slap-up meal and getting hammered, just the two of them together.

On either Sant Cara & Sant Iosef’s Day or on Sant Folant’s Day (depending on whether they consider themselves “married” or not), couples will also typically exchange gifts. But not cards. At least, not ready-made ones. Such things do exist but they are considered beneath contempt; or as something only Americans would do. It’s on a par with stealing flowers from a cemetery to give to your loved one. The art is thought to consist in presenting your special person with something that indicates something essential both about yourself and your understanding of them. Naturally, it’s a difficult art to master. But a scrawled heart on an old piece of newspaper is still considered a better option than an expensive card and a box of chocolates or bouquet of flowers made or arranged by someone else. Although there are norms to follow and language forms to adhere to, Albans are not generally all that repressed about expressing either love or lust.

Kids who are too young for the whole Sant Folant’s rigmarole get their kicks a few days later on Gwenesdyth 17th, which is known as Absoltar Gwenesdyth. Historically, it was supposed to be the day before the start of Lent when people would go to confession and get their sins absolved to purify themselves prior to the long fast. These days, everyone just stuffs their faces with crempets. You know them as pancakes. Alban crempets are more like French crepes than the American pancakes and unlike Cymranic crempets which are small, round griddle cakes. Fillings are always sweet and tend to consist of things like stewed fruit with cream and anadwr (apple brandy) or banana and chocolate with rum. Even when served to children. Abstinence and prohibition is not an Alban thing.