I know it’s generally only a Unified Territories thing, but does anyone else in the Restoration celebrate Thanksgiving.”?
“We don't celebrate thanksgiving over here but we do have our own version called Stump Day,” Lanolin explained.
“And lore-masters Knuckles and Lanolin are here to explain it all to you!” Knuckles shouted, scaring the hell out of Lanolin.
“GAAH! Where did you come from?!” She shouted.
“The Master Emerald but we're not here to talk about that we're here to talk about Stump Day,” he said very matter of factly. “I'll start explaining the origins of it.”
“I clearly don't have a say in this so I'll just play along,” Lanolin chuckled tiredly.
Knuckles began, “The story is so old that there's a bunch of different versions of it and no one can really agree what's the true one so we'll just do our best to explain it all to you. A long time ago there was a village that was centered around a tremendous tree stump. It was so massive it could be used not only as a giant banquet table but also a stage. How the tree was felled in the first place is a whole separate myth that we won't be getting into. Anyway, the people of this village always near end of fall would have a great feast from the harvest atop the stump. but one day when they were all preparing the goods there was a series of catastrophes they each and every one of them suffered ruining the food they had prepared. Like one guy tripped and dropped his entire cart of tomatoes down a cliff, one guy was foiled by a bunch of ravenous flickeys that ate all his corn and there was a guy who got struck by lightning so he couldn't finish his baking. Everyone has their own versions of what each person in this village went through. Some people only list a few, some people can recount all of them but no one version is the same for every person. Some say all this misfortune was caused by nefarious spirits. Maybe they offended some deity. Or maybe it was just pure terrible coincidental bad luck. Again, it depends on who's telling the story. As they all sat down glum about their terrible luck they still brought what they could to the table unleavened bread, a handful of tomatoes, some dried fruit, again depending on who's telling the story,” Knuckles pointed at his fellow lore-master.
Now Lanolin took over with a smile, “The next part though is the part everyone can agree on. For a moment there was silence but then all at once they all started laughing. The pure terrible luck was so terrible that it circled back to being hilarious. They laughed and laughed and laughed and they began eating and celebrating. Finding joy in their misfortune but also the fortune they have to know each other. They sang and ate and with so little food on the stump they were able to dance atop it. But then something miraculous happened and you guessed it this next part depends on who you ask because there are a bunch of different versions of it. One story goes that some spirit or deity saw their joy and their misfortune and decided to give them a brand new feast. Some stories say it's Light Gaia, some say Arcadia, some say it was some spirit with too many eyes and too many hands called Wandagood which I thought for sure was just the Wandering God but then there's an old Mazuri story about something called Wandagood who sounds very different so somebody either traveled there or there was there just a loss of translation or was it the name got garbled over time and we'll never know for sure because two hundred some years ago some marauding assholes burned down half the country erasing all the records THAT WOULD'VE EXPLAINED IT!”
Knuckles looked on in concern as the sheep caught her breath, “You good?”
She sighed, “Yeah I'm fine, lemme continue. A much less supernatural rendition of the story is that a caravan of wealthy merchants were traveling by and heard the commotion. They came over and asked them why they were celebrating over so little. The villagers told them the whole story and the merchants were so moved that they sold their stocked goods to them at extremely cheap prices and decided to help make this small no name village into a great city. Depending on who you ask this either became Central City, Emerald City, Sunset City or Seaside City. Honestly every major city lays claim to the story and sometimes take it way too seriously. I somehow doubt this story more than a supernatural ones because if there's one thing I know about rich people is that they suddenly don't get a chance of heart and make their new home in the middle of nowhere. But what we know for sure is that the story traveled far and wide across mobian lands and here we are. In short, Stump Day is where we celebrate the positive attitude of making the best of a bad situation and give thanks for what we have.”
“Oh but where is it celebrated Lore-Master Lanolin,” Knuckles asked with a wink.
Smiling at his antics, she continued, “It's less popular in cities but everywhere else everyone celebrates when it comes around. Some people even have their own stump they keep.”
This was something Knuckles didn't know, “They do?”
“Yeah but it's more ceremonial. I mean there's no way everyone can keep a giant stump like they do in the story. Some people take the stump very seriously. My uncle told me a story about how one guy burnt someone else's stump and the ground swallowed them whole right then and there. He said the gods were angry at what he did so he was punished. only much later in life did I learn that the area where it happened was an area known for sinkholes so I'm not sure if I was the gods or not,” she said.
Knuckles rubbed his chin, “Weird, I heard a similar story only instead of sinking through the ground, the guy just spontaneously combusted right then and there. But yeah it's not something you wanna, you know, stress test.”
She nodded with a grimace, “For sure, especially the kind of world we live in.”
“What does your family do?” he asked.
With a far away nostalgic look, Lanolin went down memory lane, “Every year there was some sort of fight in my family about whether to serve meat or not. Everyone on my dad’s side of the family didn't want to serve meat as they believed it was offensive, sacrilegious even, to Arcadia. In their version of the story, Arcadia made a massive bounty of fruits, vegetables and mushrooms appear on the stump after seeing their joy. But my mom and only my mom thought that was silly and we should use any kind of bounty the land gives us. If that seems uneven it really wasn't it, my mom had the stubbornness of twenty people. Some years my mom would come out on top and then some years my dad's side of the family would come out on top. It really depended on who got sick of the fighting sooner,” she finished with a smile.
Knuckles held up his hands in surprise, “Woah back up I didn't know people still worshiped Arcadia?”
She nodded, “Oh yeah sure it's more of a rural thing but we even still celebrate the Spring festival. Hell, the medal you win for winning the flower contest has her face on it which again some people find sacrilegious.”
“Huh neat……so what are your plans for Stump Day? Same as usual?” Knuckles asked, unaware of the minefield he just walked into.
Suddenly looking very uncomfortable, Lanolin looked away before speaking, “Uh no not really there has been some changes in my family and the only person I can really talk to is my uncle.”
Knuckles, despite his reputation of being thick headed, was able to read through the lines and sympathy swelled within him, “You know if you want, you and everyone else can come over to my island on Stump Day. I do have a giant stump we can use. You can even bring your uncle if you want.”
Lanolin couldn't be more moved by his offer, “I……I would like that very much. Thank you Knuckles.”
He smiled and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, “It's no problem, after all the day is all about making the best of a bad situation.”