Winterflame

Winterflame is a festival celebrating chosen family. Uycheon III is a cold and overcrowded place. The native Tukkav population has, by necessity, been forced into close contact with both each other and with other races, as their overpopulated planet has forced many of them to migrate off world. Many rituals and traditions have been created among Tukkav tribes related to growing closer and keeping the icy weather of their homeworld at bay. Most of these traditions revolve around sharing music, warmth, and companionship.

Five hundred years ago, a Tukkav by the name of Laus Koldain began a new tradition, which he called Winterflame (sometimes also called Winterhearth). The holiday was modeled after traditional Toof Circles, but with a decidedly more inclusive bent. Occuring once every quarter century, Winterflame is focused around togetherness, a way for Tukkav in all corners of the galaxy to extend their natural feelings of hospitality and warmth to non-Tukkav. This multi-racial holiday has become rather popular, with gift giving, story circles, and of course, drinking, as popular mainstays and traditions. Some of the few remaining wilderness areas on Uycheon III are even opened to outsiders to come and join in the festivities, even ones that are normally reserved for only Tukkav.

The philosophy of a ‘chosen family’ is a central component of Winterflame, with blood bonds (which are more celebrated in traditional Toof circles, and during the Ouran) being seen as less important than the ones that are consciously built and maintained. One of the common, easily recognized cultural images of the holiday is a group of unrelated individuals sitting around a mobile camp stove or electric heater (sales of these usually spike during the holiday.)