Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well is there? I was reading a cain novel and they mentioned "Emperor Day" and something about presents.
Is there really is a chrismas analogue in 40k?
And what are the traditions and songs?

There's a "national" holiday known as the Feast of the Emperor's ascension. It's the biggest holiday in the Imperium and the only day workers/Administratum adepts have as a day off, etc.. It's not very "Christmasy", i.e. you don't get any presents, and it's much more religiously based. Given the name, I imagine there's also state-sponsored feasts involved.

I imagine it celebrates the day the Emperor became interned on the Golden Throne.

"Christmas" is a festival of lights during the winter months when it's cold and dark so everyone eats loads of foods and puts up loads of lights.
I'd imagine there'd be something like it on most planets.
That the Imperium should try to make it about the Emperor is what the Catholic Church successfully did with Yuletide by turning it into Christmas.

Candlemas. The ending of the Standard Imperial Year. I always imagined it was pretty much Christmas with more Emperor and less Jesus.

Necromunda has Fistmas. The date when the Imperial fists retook the planet during the great crusade. Presents are given.

Apart from various feasts and religious days for the multitude of Imperial Saints, I imagine that each world would have a few unique holidays depending on their culture.

Needless to say, various novel author's interpretation on the subject may differ greatly - though I do have to say that a holiday concerning the "Emperor's Ascension", as Harriticus mentioned, is quite likely, given that the Imperial religion is focused on His sacrifice for humanity.

You can't forget "Four-armed-Emperor Day"! It's a classic!

Don't forget to invite the local Inquisitor to celebrate it with you.

There's also some kind of Sanguinius holiday that's celebrated all over the Imperium, even on worlds that don't like or are terrified by the Blood Angels and their successors (I think I read a reference once to a Sororitas thinking Sanguinius was noble, even though his Space Marines are crazy). They might give presents on Sanguinius's holiday, and it would certainly be a holiday of lights and celebration, remembering a hero known for his acts of defiance against the dark.

There will be holidays for commercial reasons i'm sure and there will be some around the Emperor and some around machines and even some more primitive ones but ultimately the Emperor was a supporter of scepticism and Christmas in it's most contemporary setting is a religious holiday, something which the Emperor wouldn't have abided.

VikingScott wrote:Necromunda has Fistmas. The date when the Imperial fists retook the planet during the great crusade. Presents are given.

Are you serious? If so, it must be the most hillariously named holliday i have heard off.

Emperor's Day is the closest you are going to get.

I gave out Happy Emperor's Day cards this year to our gaming group, each was addressed to the main non-imperial army they played and was from Ordo Xenos:

Savage Ork
Foul Eldar
Souleating Necron
Naive Tau
Twisted Dark Eldar

Laughs were had all around

How can a million+ worlds keep their calendars in perfect sync somehow escapes me.

But yes, there's The Emperor's Ascension Day. Though given the circumstances that surrounded his... erm... "ascension", I suppose it has more to do with Easter than with Christmas.

You know, processions, penitents and the like.

Agent_Tremolo wrote:How can a million+ worlds keep their calendars in perfect sync somehow escapes me.

They don't.

Melissia wrote:

Agent_Tremolo wrote:How can a million+ worlds keep their calendars in perfect sync somehow escapes me.

They don't.

I know a guy who spent like a year celebrating Emperor's Day once a week. All it took was a fast ship and good information about which worlds used which variant of the Imperial Calendar.

Then the Daemons ate him.

Melissia wrote:

Agent_Tremolo wrote:How can a million+ worlds keep their calendars in perfect sync somehow escapes me.

They don't.

There is a standardized dating system used by the Adeptus Terra, though my guess is each world has 2 different dating systems. The Imperial Calender (used during interactions with the Adeptus Terra/Ecclesiarchy), and a local one that's otherwise used 99% of the time.

Semper wrote:There will be holidays for commercial reasons i'm sure and there will be some around the Emperor and some around machines and even some more primitive ones but ultimately the Emperor was a supporter of scepticism and Christmas in it's most contemporary setting is a religious holiday, something which the Emperor wouldn't have abided.

Ah but that's the great irony and Tragedy innit? The galaxy's metaphysical laws changed when (the Webway was wrecked and) the Emperor was struck down, such that he knew that the only remaining hope (and that a scant one) for humanity is to worship Him as a god - the very thing that He wanted least and despised the most.

So it goes; you adapt to the new sub-optimal reality or perish; bedrock survival morality rather than (and diametrically opposed to) preference. Suitably grimdark and cr*psack (and realistic), makes the arrogant and pompous Emperor a lot more likeable as a character, and explains why only the True Faithful get His little blessings and treats... the Astartes haven't quite managed to catch up with the galaxy's new rules yet (that they caused)... give 'em another ten thousand years and they might have figured it out.

[BTW: Are there any SM Chapters known to follow the Imperial Creed?]

Anyone know how the tale of Ascension Day would be generally handled? Aren't the details of the HH publicly expunged? So there's probably no using Horus' name in phrases where we would use 'Devil' (like in the Cain novels), and it'd be just some vague, 'The Emperor voluntarily imprisoned himself in the Throne as an eternal Man-God to watch over and redeem us unworthy mortals' kind of thing?

In one of the Eisinhorn books they celebrate Candlemas. It was either on Gudrun or Hydraphur.

The Mad Tanker wrote:Emperor's Day is the closest you are going to get.

I gave out Happy Emperor's Day cards this year to our gaming group, each was addressed to the main non-imperial army they played and was from Ordo Xenos:

Savage Ork
Foul Eldar
Souleating Necron
Naive Tau
Twisted Dark Eldar

Laughs were had all around

Hey I haven't eaten a soul since the new codex came out. We don't do that no more. Though I did like our tau player's reaction when he opened it.

How about Festivus?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
For the rest of us...

I would celebreate the day the emperor was made a parapalegic corpse king......

That was a good day =]


Now if only we could find the plug outlet keeping his rotten arse alive.....

I'd actually always wanted to know this so I could fit some fluff behind a Christmas-themed Imperial Guard scheme, the idea being that while other guard regiments might have the liberty of celebrating the festivities, the Christmas Guard are dedicated to staying on duty in red and white uniforms during the holiday.

Milisim wrote:I would celebreate the day the emperor was made a parapalegic corpse king......

That was a good day =]


Now if only we could find the plug outlet keeping his rotten arse alive.....

An inquisitor has been dispatched. If your lucky you may have enough time to repent

Just don't do anything to deserve coal, you don't want to see the size of the piece they are going to give you, or the size of the gun they will shoot it out of.

Here's a hint, the dinosaurs didn't like it when they got theirs.

"Merry christmas to all, and to all a....... BLAM! heresy!

xXSir MontyXx wrote:"Merry christmas to all, and to all a....... BLAM! heresy!

Brother Claus disagrees