Unification Day

Unification Day is the national day of the Vernarcan Federation, celebrated on 27.2 each Federation Standard Calendar year as a public holiday. It commemorates the unification of the Vernarcan Federation in 1 BC, when the Campuran Coalition, Delnar Empire, Erdathian Federal Republic, Varbudian Union, and Verdan Federation signed the Federation Acts of Union, resulting in the initial unification of the Federation. Unification day on 27.2 has been the national holiday since 9 AC and the formal end of the Tyran War. While the national days of its member states remain in place, over the years it has largely superseded them as the Vernarcan Federation's national identity grew.

Unification Day usually features with fireworks, parades, concerts, sports games and other pastimes, political speeches, and ceremonies, in addition to other public and private events which celebrate the history, government, and traditions of the Vernarcan Federation.

Background

Prior to the foundation of the Vernarcan Federation, every member state had its own culture, traditions and national holidays (mostly), so it was only natural that the new nation should have one too. The issue of what it would be was thorny, however. The Delnar Empire's national day commemorating the coronation of the first emperor and the EFR's commemorating the toppling of the last were virtually irreconcilable as the basis for a broader national day, and the Varbudian Union's celebration of the first orbital launch was a whole different ball game. The Verdan Federation never could agree on one, which did not bode well for agreement between even more diverse groups.

Much like the earlier deliberation over the Federation Standard Calendar, any suggestion founded in any way in the traditions of one of the founding nations would never make it past the other four. The first proposal to actually be agreed upon by a majority of the committee was the date of the ratification of the Federation Acts of Union, 18.8, 1 BC. This coincided with the anniversaries of the fall of the Erdathian Domain in 33 BC and the defeat of Kenera Fal's coup in 92. This would have became the official date of Unification Day each standard year, but the resident historians who checked over such things pointed out that this date was the 42nd anniversary of the genocide of the Enolians at the hands of Shahso. While this event did indeed start pushing the founding nations toward each other to create the Federation, commemorating the day with something as celebratory as Unification Day would become was universally agreed to be in extremely poor taste.

The backup plan was thus unveiled to the world as the original plan. Unification Day was formally set on 27.2 each year on 4.9, 8 AC, with the first official celebration the next year. This was to correspond with the initial signing of the Acts of Union by the five nations, a stage of the legal process which normally went by with little fanfare. However, the unfortunate coincidence of the original intended date made it unfeasible, and the end of the Tyran War was so chaotic as to make it impossible to choose any date to signify a meaningful end to it.

History of Celebration

The announcement of Unification Day was overshadowed by the weeks-long celebrations of the official end of the Tyran War, and only the most avid of news readers began to celebrate it after the initial statement. This situation was mostly rectified when a secondary announcement made when the peace hype had died down made everyone aware of the existence of the new holiday. Thus, Unification Day went from footnote to established holiday quite quickly, with most planned celebrations on the major worlds and habitats consisting of a mishmash of existing National Days dating from pre-federation times.

Aside from the first one in 9 AC, which also doubled as a celebration of the official end of the Tyran War, early Unification Day celebrations were generally lightly attended affairs, as the national identities of the previously independent nations remained very strong in most places, especially rural areas. However, as more people were born into the Vernarcan Federation, a unique national identity began to emerge, and with it came a rise in Unification Day celebrations.

The accession of the Vuan Assembly to Federation membership in 12 AC was made official on Unification Day, beginning a tradition of new members being finalized on that day. This continued with the Kelinea Confederacy in 25, Kesstra Ascendancy in 33, two more tribes of the Kelinea in 42, and the Perim Union in 66. By this time, celebrations had expanded greatly from their comparatively quiet roots, with enormous operations deploying spaceborne fireworks, blowing up mockup space stations, various celebratory events across the airwaves, and more.

The Tyran Free State's creation in 43 replaced a longtime, if crippled, enemy with a possible ally, and this was reflected in a change to the traditional celebrations of Unification Day. Some bandied about proposals of softening depictions of the Tyran War in educational programs out of fear of offending their new allies, but the Free State's government caught wind of this and released a statement saying that to depict Shahso and his acts as anything other than pure, unquestionable evil is in itself offensive. Local authorities took this and ran with it as requested.

The Kaegan Conflict brought some more patriotic we-can-take-our-colonies-back messaging to Unification Day celebrations, but these mostly receded when the colonies were in fact taken back and the conflict largely ended.

In 79 AC, with the accession of the freshly independent United Earen and Republic of Avor, some Falacian traditions made their way into Unification Day celebrations, ironically just as the Falacian Dominion itself was rapidly pulling away from the Federation's diplomatic sphere. In 86, the Tyran Free State officially joined the Vernarcan Federation, followed by the Enolian Coalition, which brought with them various celebratory traditions regarding the end of Shahso's tyranny and independence, ideas which fit so well with existing celebrations that the practices spread quickly across the now-enormous Federation.

As new states joined the Federation, the practices of Unification Day diversified, and a celebration on Shah Tarash would be wildly different to one on Riojan or Campura. Even the FSS Kareland, stranded an unimaginable distance from Federation space, continued to celebrate in its own resource-efficient way to keep a connection with home.

The first large-scale Unification Day celebration beyond the Ervo Sector came after the discovery of the Szalana Wormhole and the first colonies in the Yusia and Arwell systems. However, the beginning of the Szalana Cold War colored the local celebrations after that point, as the powers of the Alliance of Five tried to use their posturing to drive the Yazera Pact nations out of "their territory". This gave the people of the Federation a new enemy, and general we're-better-than-them themes and rhetoric began to seep into the political speeches given at these celebrations.

The outbreak of the War of the Broken Bow and especially first contact with the Void cranked these up to eleven, and the existential nature of the Void crisis galvanized the people of the Federation. Big, flashy Unification Day celebrations were often considered a frivolous waste of resources that should be put towards the war effort, although social scientists believed them to be important to morale in this time. The most recent Unification Day in 150 came in a suspicious pause in Void attacks, and people took full advantage, blowing up huge amounts of fireworks procured from the trash bin of malfunctioning military ordnances. These weeklong celebrations were unfortunately interrupted by the beginning of the final Void assault and the destruction of the Arwell System, and the war became nothing but a nonstop existential fight to see another day, until the destruction of the Void at the hands of the FSS Kareland and its alliance on 13.10 provided an excuse to "finish" the interrupted celebrations of eight months earlier.

It is likely that the fall of the Void and the end of the War of the Broken Bow will become a new interstellar holiday, and the new unfortunate association of the week of Unification Day with the destruction of the Arwell System may lead to its decline in the future, but it will almost certainly never disappear altogether as this new era of peace dawns.

Observance and Customs

Unification Day is a national holiday marked by a wide variety of patriotic displays. As a federal holiday, non-essential federal institutions such as the postal service and sessions of the Federation Council are closed on this day. Many smaller private institutions, be they restaurants or museums, may also close their doors on this day, but some (restaurants in particular) choose instead to remain open to take advantage of the high traffic from celebrating people.

Families often celebrate Unification Day by hosting a family reunion. The long weekend composed of Unification Day and the three days of the regular weekend following is often taken advantage of for longer celebrations. Military parades held by the Federation Space Force often make their way through Federation territory, and the FSS Kareland took part in such a parade shortly before its disappearance. Impressive fireworks displays can be seen in space over planets, and smaller ones are fired from the surface as well. Decorations are generally colored red, blue, and gold, the colors of the Federation flag, and miniature flags of the Federation and whatever state one finds oneself in can be seen decorating properties.

Common small-scale celebrations involve gun salutes using archaic gunpowder-based firearms, due to modern weapons generally doing absolutely nothing unless they hit a target and these sorts of things being common to most national days prior to the Federation's founding. Performances of patriotic songs, poetry, or other forms of art are often done. Professional fireworks displays are often fired into space from habitats, providing an epic show for both the habitat's population and anyone living nearby.

The last week of month 2 is typically one of the busiest travel periods of the year across the Federation, as the four-day holiday weekend is exploited for vacation trips.