Father's Day in Ansalon
It must have been only a month or two after the whole Mother's Day thing when I, again, found my former apprentice, Roderick, standing in my office with a special request.
"Can I take a couple weeks off to go home?"
Now that takes guts. You know your master is not the most generous soul in the world. You know you have three major projects due to your master in two weeks. And you know that your master has never given you that much time off, even for Yule.
The sheer audacity was astounding. So rather then immediately dismissing the request out of hand, I decided to indulge my curiosity first.
"Very well Roderick. You have my interest. Why do you want to go home? I cannot imagine home visits to Solanthas are fun for a Black Robe apprentice. Unless, of course, the Knights of Solamnia have suddenly figured out that whole Balance concept and I just did not get the memo."
From his immediate, surprised reaction, I think Roderick was expecting me to dismiss the request out of hand. Upon hearing my interest in his reasoning, however, I think the boy suddenly realized he could move forward with the rest of his script after all.
I settled in for the entertainment.
"You see, sir. I want to go home because Father's Day is coming up. It's a special day between fathers and their children, just like Mother's Day. My father is going to be home and we had talked about taking a father-son trip together into the mountains."
I give Roderick points for simple but persuasive sincerity. Not long-winded or presumptuous. Just straightforward, short, and to-the-point. I was almost moved by the expression of filial devotion.
He must have been working on it for weeks. I started crying.
After all, laughing that hard is truly painful.
"My dear Roderick. That was delightful! You are getting stronger, my young apprentice. I almost bought that."
"Unfortunately for you, lad, I am already familiar with the Solamnic holiday of Father's Day, having continued that line of research after your Mother's Day request. I am also familiar with the following facts. One, you hate your father and the sentiments are shared. Two, if you were to go into the mountains with him alone, I would lose access to either your services, your family's generous funding of your apprenticeship, or both. Three, I happen to know that the Solamnic Father's Day was three days ago, which means your request is dated. Four, I also happen to know that there is a University of Solanthas gala coming up next weekend, quite notorious for both drink and debauchery."
"Points for effort, my boy, but not for success. Back to work with you. I am moving your due date for those projects to day two of that U of S kegger. Somehow, I am guessing you know EXACTLY what day that is. Be off with you!"
As Roderick dejectedly left my study, and returned to his assignments, I noted a new email (a convenient abbreviation used for our inter-office enchanted mail service). The email was from Lady Raist and marked Urgent in bright... I have no idea what that color is... letters.
Blast! She overheard my comment about researching Father's Day. Now I have another writing assignment. No rest for the wicked, I guess...
To offer one generality about the various Father's Day traditions before I begin with more specific traditions: unlike Mother's Day, Father's Day is primarily a human tradition. Though family ties are strong among dwarves, they do not seem to have evolved a specific holiday to recognize dwarven fathers. Kender do not have a paternal equivalent to their individual Mother's Day (much to the relief of their predominantly-male traveling companions). Even draconians, looking as they are at inventing family traditions as well as family, have not apparently saw the need for a Father's Day.
Solamnia/Palanthas/Ergoth/Urban Abanasinians
Unlike the holiday of Mother's Day, which dated from ancient times, the first Father's Day holiday was celebrated in Solamnia, before being adopted by other cultures. Legend has it that Vinas Solamnus and his son created the holiday tradition (of course, if Vinas Solamnus created even half the stuff he is credited with, the guy had to have lived an elven lifespan). Ergoth, the urban areas of Abanasinia, Schallsea, and other civilized realms and cities with strong present or past ties to Solamnia adopted the holiday from the Solamnics, and celebrate it the same way. This consistency made research fairly easy overall (a good thing, because the specific research effort directed at the gnomes of Mount Nevermind ended up costing me a bundle).
The Solamnic Father's Day is celebrated on Fourthmonth, Twelfth day. Generally speaking, the spring and summer campaign season has not yet begun, yet the weather is mild enough for fathers and their families to celebrate out-of-doors.
Unlike the Solamnic Mother's Day, where the entire family celebrates (and suffers) the day together, Father's Day is a father-son holiday. Mothers and daughters typically play little part in the holiday though. However, if a father has only daughters, and is suffering from a bit of denial, a daughter or two might step into the role of a son.
In many cases, the father and son take the opportunity to take a trip together. Sometimes this trip is just down the street or road for the day (Solamnia does not restrict contributing to the delinquency, and drunkenness, of its youth as long as it is done as a family tradition... go figure). Other times, the trip can take the form of a camping trip or trip to another city or two, which can last for a couple days or weeks.
As mentioned previously, mothers and daughters play little part in this holiday. This is true, as far as things go, but there can be no question that not having men underfoot for a while is probably regarded as a holiday by more then a few.
Some families maintain a tradition that only the oldest son and heir takes this trip with his father (a tradition I imagine creates all sorts of familial drama; someone should write a play or two). In most cases, however, all the sons take the trip with their father together. Presumably, this trip will involve a lot of father-son bonding, as well as conversations about the future. I was amused to discover one additional truism, though it is one carefully swept under the carpet. In both Solamnia and Ergoth, there are more instances of both fratricide and patricide on Father's Day then all the other days of the year combined.
Plainsmen
The Plainsmen tribes of Abanasinia, Duntolik, and the Plains of Dust all maintain a variant tradition similar to a Father's Day holiday, though it is more directed at measuring the Plainsman's success as a father, rather then honoring the fact he is a father.
This tradition takes place for each individual Plainsman father on his Day of Life-gift. The father approaches another father (usually a neighbor, but occasionally a father in another rival tribe) and issues a challenge to a competition that typically involves some skill integral to the survival of the tribe (the usual is a hunting challenge or some sort of athletic competition). The challenge actually pits one child of each father against one another (if a father has more then one child, he picks the one to compete). Before you ask; no, there is no minimum age.
If the challenging father (or rather, his child) wins the challenge, tradition holds that the father's last year has been a valuable one, blessed by good fortune and the gods. If the child loses, however, then the father is regarded as having failed in his paternal responsibilities somewhat in the last year, and needs to work harder raising his children right.
As simple as all this seems on the surface, there is actually a lot of social subtext present in this challenge tradition. The meaning of at least some of it was not obvious to me, and the whole tradition is, in fact, hideously complex. Since each father nominates the child to represent him in the challenge, there is a lot of implication that can be conveyed as well as a plethora of opportunities to offer insult. For instance, it is generally considered a mild slap in the face to offer a daughter for nearly any challenge, rather then a son (especially if the other father only has sons). Offering a clearly incompetent child for a given challenge (such as nominating an infant for a hunting challenge) is a very serious insult, though it does carry with it a mild to moderate stigma of foolishness for the nominating father. If a child inferior to the challenge actually succeeds, the losing father loses a considerable amount of face in the tribe.
Though the challenges can be dangerous and deaths and injuries are not uncommon, the competition is supposed to be a friendly one, with the intent and primary benefit being improvement of the tribe overall by ensuring no child is left behind. This tradition, however, demonstrates that ideals and reality often have trouble dwelling together; and "friendly competition" is frequently an oxymoron.
There is one benefit I see. The Plainsfolk children get an early introduction to the hypocrisy of parents instructing their children to "play nice with the other kids".
Elves
After what I discovered surrounding the idea of elves and a Mother's Day, I was rather unsurprised to learn that they do not recognize a Father's Day either... probably for many of the same reasons.
Gnomes
There was once a gnome Father's Day, according to the historical records in Mount Nevermind (this information came at the cost of nearly fifty severely traumatized imps; what do gnomes write in those books anyway?). Recognizing the scientific fact that both a mother and a father were required to make a child, the gnomes concluded there must be both a Mother's Day and a Father's Day. The first Father's Day holiday was officially scheduled for Eleventhmonth Twenty-second day, and about 500 years ago (the exact year was a bit fuzzy, as was the mind and sentience of the imp from whom I had to forcibly extract this information).
The Committee for Family Planning and Affairs (interesting choice of wording for that name) determined that, rather then individual inventions demonstrated for each father (as with Mother's Day the previous week), the gnomes would all gather for a parade through Mount Nevermind. A selection of inventions, created by gnomes selected by a special subcommittee from a list of guild nominations, would be demonstrated as a tribute to the contributions fathers make in creating the most brilliant inventors in the mountain.
The damage analysis report, property loss documentation, and autopsy reports for the first-ever Father's Day filled the next 762,381 pages of text reviewed by the imps. To the extent of my research to date, it is my understanding that there has never been another Father's Day celebration. The Committee continues to study and discuss the issue whenever its other topics get too politically contentious.
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