Things We Make Up...Like Holidays

I’ve made up a lot of stuff in my day, my sister can attest to that. Gum that alters the composition of your saliva so when you spit on the sidewalk it changes colors, slobbering beasts that prowl the barnyards, fairies that would come and eat mud pies when you weren’t looking.

But, I’ve never made up a holiday. I’m all in on writing-down-your-baggage and burning the paper to release it to the light, and Book Days (yay books!). But, no holiday has crystalized in my imagination yet.

Though I have made up worlds. My newest fantasy-manuscript was based off of Norse mythology and has nine realms connected by a current of power that flows through the Woods. My MC was born in the dark half of the year on Samhain. And since the story’s roots sprout from Norse mythology, it’s dark. 

Greek mythology is filled with vain, beautiful, jealous gods. But the Greeks balanced out the dark and Hades with lots of light, like Apollo and Dionysus, and wine. Norse mythology revolves around death and the beings that cause death, like the giants known as the devourers. 

Which makes me think that maybe I will invent a holiday for book two. It could be centered around these bright, red berries that are their sweetest after the first frost. But, the berries only grow on one tree deep in the forest of the Realm of Nóttheim. And to reach them in time, one would have to face the vargr, the demon wolves that guard the Wood. Whoever could reach the berries would gain a piece of realm's energy, a very rare occasion, but one worth camping outside of the forest to watch and see who attempts, and fails. 

That holiday might not a bright spot for my characters, but people went crazy for the coliseum and the Vikings loved their battles. And now ideas are churning in my head and I’m looking forward to writing that far more than I’m looking forward to finishing Christmas shopping! How about you?