introductory mingle: MEMORIA

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Introductory Log and Memoria Commemoration
when: May 1st - May 8th
where: Anywhere around the city.
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

memoria

In the days leading up to May 1st, residents new and old will notice preparations beginning, a flurry of activity getting the city ready for the upcoming celebration: Memoria. A more solemn celebration than Sampremi or the Flower Festival, Memoria is a week-long time of remembrance for those lost in the Great War and the epidemic that decimated Riverview Quarantine's population 10 years ago. Memoria traditions include lighting lanterns for the dead, telling stories about lost loved ones or lost homes, eating meals with loved ones, and a special gathering to send floating lanterns down the river in honor of those lost.

a solemn commemoration of those lost

While the main city-wide event associated with Memoria is the floating of lanterns down the river on the evening of May 8th, the holiday is generally seen as a time of reflection on and appreciation of things that have been lost - people, homes, cultures, and planets. It is also a celebration of the things that remain. Many locally-owned shops will host displays of culturally-significant food, and will hand out informational flyers sharing the unique customs of their own homeworlds. There is a heavy emphasis on sharing time with family, friends, and lovers, and anyone who is able to will cook meals or treats for loved ones, or at least purchase them something good to eat.

i. hanging lanterns

Throughout the entire week of Memoria, residents will be hanging lanterns around the city. Lanterns are generally placed in greater number in places of passage - streets, bridges, and all alongside the train lines are particularly well-decorated, as are any trees alongside paths, and most homes and businesses have a profusion of lanterns around their doors and windows. This tradition is twofold; some people believe that the lanterns are hung in these places in order to guide the spirits of the dead back to those who still love them, other people believe that the lanterns are to give light for living loved ones to find their doors in times of darkness...many people believe both.

No matter what your character might believe, you can be sure they will find themselves offered a lantern for free from various businesses or friendly citizens passing by, and invited to hang it before the sun sets, or they may be handed a bundle of lanterns and asked to help share them with others.

ii. sharing life

Throughout the city, characters will find groups of people gathering to share hot drinks and talk about their loved ones lost, their homes and planets, or their experiences during the Great War and the epidemic. Anyone who has lost someone, who has fought to survive, who is feeling cut off and homesick, is welcome to sit and share their story. If your character chooses to sit and to share their story, they will find that people will gather to listen, will generally be respectful of the telling, and may share their own similar experiences in return. This is an excellent time to air grief in an environment where most people understand and respect grief, and a good time to deepen the connections to others around you, to understand them better.

There is also a very large focus on cooking or purchasing meals or treats for loved ones during Memoria, with many people taking meals with everyone they care about during the week of the holiday. Some go the extra mile and will hand out baked goods (usually chocolate or cinnamon), packets of candy, or other little treats to acquaintances, especially if they would like to form a closer bond with them. This is a great time for characters to reach out to someone they would like to get to know better with a surprise treat!

iii. floating of the lanterns

On the evening of May 8th, just before sundown, many of the city's residents will head toward the banks of the river, where they will light lanterns in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, in honor of their dead loved ones. The types of lanterns vary wildly, based on personality (either of the person floating it or the person they are honoring), culture, and many other factors. Some lanterns are very simple, others are incredibly complex, but the one common feature they all have is that people write on the shades of them - they write about their feelings for their loved ones, their wishes for their relationships and friendships, a memory from childhood or home, or even just lines of poetry or lyrics from songs that express something they miss, or something that hurts them.

Once those emotions are written on the lanterns, the lanterns are set free, floating down the river in the darkening evening, in a cathartic gesture shared by most residents of the city. Waves of lantern floating will start around 7 pm and continue until the sun rises on the morning of May 9th.

iv. roommates or wildcard

Feel free to use this prompt to set up headers for a communal floor, or threads open to roommates for the purpose of getting to know each other. Or if you have an idea for a prompt that isn't in this list, set during Memoria, feel free to write it up!

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: glowconcepts, image ii: by trenchmaker, image iv: cherryorange; image iii: found uncredited on Pinterest - please let the mod know if you find credit!

navigation

Comments

[clobbers]

Well then, I have to agree that birds and trees wouldn't suit. ( He does; and she'd been thirteen when her parents, her world had died. It's empathy with which she looks at him now, clearly able to see that father and son had shared a special bond. ) Red or black, I think. Let's see.

Okay, I will. ( The corners of her mouth twitch upward a little, and Kara keeps pace with his chair easily enough. The red ones are nice, but don't scream 'Astra' to her.

Eventually, after making a round of this stall, she comes upon a black one, streaked with white. She'll need a bright pen or marker to write on it, but. As she rounds the stall again, she points up toward a red and black one near the top of the display. )

Something more like that, maybe?

[ragnarsson]

[The selection of lanterns at this second stall fits better, but the sight of them overwhelms the young Viking a little bit. Lost in memories of the father who he'd lost, found, and then lost again, he only looks back up when Kara points out the red and black one.

Ivar pulls the lantern down and examines it. There's nature symbols on this one too, but they're the kind that make one appreciate the power of the outside world. Fire flames, crashing waves, and storm clouds filled with lightning adorn three sides of the lantern. The fourth looks as if it's been left open for someone to write on it. Ivar holds it up in comparison to the one he got for his mother. It's also a little bigger than the white one. It fits.]

Yes. I think he would have liked this one. It's suited for a warrior king.

[clobbers]

( A passerby hands Kara two pens with a soft smile, which effectively solves the quandary of what they'd use to write on the lanterns before it'd even arisen. She looks his over critically once he's pulled it down, and nods.

The symbols especially seem fitting for the leader of a culture which existed so closely with nature. Unlike her own. )

Looks like we're all set. Did you want to find a bench nearer the water to write what we want? I may as well keep you company now.

( Her features soften. ) I, uh. Don't do so well alone when it comes to this stuff.

[ragnarsson]

[Normally, Ivar might take off after displaying so much emotion already. But it seems like this woman understands. And frankly, he doesn't want to be by himself right now, alone with nothing but the memories that pain him.]

Does anyone? Grief is terrible enough to deal with alone. At least people can share pain together.

[He balances the lanterns on his lap as he wheels himself down towards the water. He starts thinking of what runes to write on the lanterns.]

[clobbers]

Not ideally, no. Though sometimes there's no choice. But it's good, to share with people who've been through the same sort of things.

( Before Mon-El, there'd been Clark. And Winn, too, after his dad went all murder-y and ended up in jail. (Again.) It's a hard pill to swallow that humans are able to empathize with her sometimes.

Because she wouldn't wish that on them. But she follows him, setting down to write what she'd like to say in her native Kryptonian.

Pausing as she finishes a line of verse her father had enjoyed, she looks over at him curiously. )

I guess we're just supposed to write whatever comes to mind.

[ragnarsson]

It's cathartic, I guess.

[Even if it didn't make the pain go away. Ivar missed the brief period of time when his family had been whole and together. He sometimes wondered if it would have been better never to have experienced it at all. He couldn't miss what he never had.

As for the lanterns, he writes a single rune only on each one. Uruz for his father and Eihwaz for his mother. Runes can have multiple meanings and these two represent all that his parents had given him. As he finishes writing, another wave of grief threatens to spill over. It's all he can do to stamp it back down.]