by Susan Lyttek @SusanLyttek
Only within the last month, we have celebrated my dad’s birthday, our 40th anniversary, our son’s birthday, Father’s Day, and Independence Day. A lot of rejoicing and honoring has been going on. And that’s a good thing.
Our God is a God of the holiday and celebration. As such, we need to weave such days into our stories to ground them and give them a sense of time and continuity. This is true whether the stories occur in the “real world” or a fantasy or other speculative environment.
Our first hint that God values celebration occurs in the book of Genesis. Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.
The sun, the moon and the stars had a purpose to help us mark the signs and the seasons. God wanted us to have ways to attend to a calendar in the heavens so that we could remember and account for our days.
Whether or not God’s people celebrated birthdays regularly is unclear. But Pharoah’s birthday celebration is mentioned in Genesis, in the account of Joseph, and Herod’s birthday is mentioned in multiple gospels regarding the beheading of John the Baptist. We do know that godly people marked birthdays because they recorded ages. You can’t have an age without a birthday acknowledgement of some sort. However, the celebration of birthdays is never commanded in Scripture.
God does, however, command plenty of feasts.
These ordained holidays (a word which means holy days) begin in Exodus with the Passover, though Abraham and other patriarchs before Moses feasted and celebrated whenever they felt the occasion meaningful. In addition to Passover, they honored the first harvest, the late harvest, the Feast of Tabernacles (Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year, Exodus 23:14). After the rescue in Esther, they added Purim to the calendar. Some festivals included a time of fasting or introspection, but almost all of them ended with feasting and gathering.
Beyond the calendar holidays, they celebrated births and weddings. Our God loves celebration so much that his son’s first miracle was turning water into wine for a wedding.
Holidays of all sorts give our fiction a taste of reality. @SusanLyttek #ACFW #writing #writingcommunity #ChristianFiction Click To TweetAll that said, anything we write should have moments of tradition or spontaneous occasion woven naturally within the tale. Christmas is easy to add in, but lesser holidays also ground the story and make it feel real to the reader.
In one short fantasy piece, for instance, I invented the celebration of Flower Fest to give a setting for the conflict and a reason for Princess Trudy and Prince Corduroy to have a date. Two mystery novels are partially set at Christmas, providing an anchor to reality in that way. But in both of those, the action starts prior to Christmas, so Thanksgiving is also woven in.
That, I believe, is the point. Celebration, holidays should be woven into whatever we write to give a sense of ongoing life and history. The fact that celebration occurs means that our characters and people have a past to remember and a present to honor. It gives them a culture and gives their world texture and depth.
When we read of the celebrations in Scripture, it helps us identify with the people and understand them a bit better. Holidays in our fiction should do the same.
When Susan Lyttek isn’t writing, this blackbelt wielder, stick-shift driver, and obsessive researcher can be found tutoring ages 5 to 50 on such valuable things as the quadratic equation, French irregular verbs, and exceptions to i before e except after c. Her Portal Watchers fantasy YA series begins releasing August 2023.
When Susan Lyttek isn’t writing, this blackbelt wielder, stick-shift driver, and obsessive researcher can be found tutoring ages 5 to 50 on such things as the quadratic equation, French irregular verbs, and exceptions to i before e except after c. Her Portal Watchers fantasy YA series begins releasing August 2023. Visit Susan on her website and Facebook.