Also referred to as Flower Feast, this holiday is celebrated every year in the Empire on 25, 3. It occurs right in the middle of the Kaasi summer season where, for a few days, the plant life on the planet explodes with color as the flowers reach full bloom.
The holiday began after the resettlement on Dromund Kaas following the defeat from the Great Hyperspace War. When the remnants of the old Empire came upon Dromund Kaas, its climate hadn’t been altered by the Emperor yet. But after Emperor Vitiate covered the planet in a perpetual storm, flowers became a rather rare sight. Thus when the flowers did bloom it became a spectacle and a cause for celebration. Over time the flowers came to represent prosperity and abundance, which the Sith and Imperials began to celebrate with a grand feast.
During this brief holiday season dazzling, colorful displays of flowers can be seen everywhere. Everything from buildings, entryways, tables, fountains, statues, windows, vehicles and clothes can be found decorated in some way with flowers or floral designs.
The Garden District is usually known for its (some would say) over use of botanical visuals.
But for a few days, and maybe even a couple weeks prior, the rest of Dromund Kaas indulges in this floral fanaticism.
Dromund Kaas is the only Imperial planet to have floral decorations of this magnitude. Other Imperial worlds may have some flowers shown here or there, but never close to the degree of Dromund Kaas since it’s where the holiday originated.
Aside from the spectacular visuals of the flowers, the holiday season is known for its grand feasts all over the Empire.
It’s typical for the holiday to be celebrated by families, but groups of friends and colleagues often come together to spend an entire day centered around sharing and eating great food. Smaller meals and snacks are eaten throughout the day, but the true feast is held at dinner time.
Each planet and culture have their own special Bloom Fest meals, but something that is universal throughout the Empire is the consumption of flower salads.
Versions of flower salad vary depending on the planet and even the individual who makes it. The only constant is the presence of local, edible flowers mixed with light, in season vegetables and a mildly sweet vinaigrette.
Another thing all Imperial worlds share is imbibing flower wines with the meals.
These wines are made from berry-like fruits along with the flowers that grow from the same plant. The Empire creates dozens of variants across the different worlds, each with their own unique and distinct taste.
But one can truly find the diversity of Imperial cuisine with the main course itself.
Dromund Kaas heavily features seafood the planet is so well known for.
Large piles of fresh, high quality shellfish are shared while plates of whole, grilled or baked fish are served to each person, usually with a side of rice.
And with the holiday showcasing the best food one has to offer to loved ones, a Kaasi bloom feast isn’t complete without a platter of raw seafood from the best specimens the Empire has to offer.
The food on Ziost, in contrast, feature no seafood. Instead, with its rugged mountainous terrain and vast, hilly farmlands, there is a preference for the “heartier” meats.
Holiday brog and strox are butchered and turned into roasts and steaks.
Special rolls and crisp vegetable sides accompany the meat-heavy meal.
Since Korriban never truly recovered from the total ecological devastation of the planet the feast, while Sith in style, use ingredients imported from all across the Empire.
As usual, the Sith prefer their large, complex soups filled with spice and flavor.
Typically one giant pot of the main stew will be shared at the feast while each individual might have smaller, lighter soups throughout the day featuring ingredients like Kaasi river prawns and Ziosti herbs.
Even though the vast majority of Imperial Chiss citizens live on Dromund Kaas within the district known as Little Csilla, they’ve imported their own cultural food takes for this holiday.
Chiss cuisine is largely noodle-based and for bloom feast they make fried noodles in a savory, dark sauce called Mut’csalonisk but most Imperials refer to it as csaloni noodles.
The csaloni noodles and sauce base are usually bought from specialty stores that import from Csilla but the meat and vegetable matter are all from the major Imperial worlds the Chiss have adopted.
Aside from noodles, Chiss are fond of cooking their meat in a grilling style that involves a large piece of meat, or the entire animal, being stuffed and seasoned then rotated around on an open heat source for many hours.
The Chiss on Dromund Kaas have grown fond of cooking up the local sleens and families will often cook entire sleens in this manner for the feast.
After a full day of eating delicious food, the holiday officially ends with more eating.
Like the flower salads and wines, dessert is also somewhat uniform across the Empire with floral pies.
All pies are actually fruit-based, but there are floral decorations appropriate for the holiday.
They might be collectively called floral pies, but they all come in different flavors of sweetness.
The holiday itself is only a day long and mostly involves eating, but it’s celebrated in a lavish, grandiose style befitting an Empire that can boast of its abundant resources.
happy thanksgiving y’all!
so uh… the only real connection with this and the rl holiday is FOOD, family gatherings, and a holiday origin in settling down in a place. (or resettling in the sith’s case)
i like flowers. i like colors. i like food. x3
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