14. Some People Juggle Geese
Nov. 3rd, 2010 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rossiDeep in the most rural parts of even the smallest moons, the old traditions and ways are preserved...
Excerpt from 'A Wanderer's Guide To The Outer Rim:'
Spring is festival season on most of the settled planets and each region has its own particular way of celebrating the end of Winter. Lusitania is no different, with a celebration in every town square. Naturally there are local specialties of food and drink a plenty, but it is in the entertainments that showcase the creativity and individuality of each region.
Take the tiny town of Spakakoski. It has few resources and even less culture, but every Spring visitors come from far and wide to witness one of the stranger customs in the 'Verse. Young men and women gather to the town square to demonstrate their dexterity and skill, and not a little courage, after the first goslings of the season are hatched.
With great daring and nerves of steel, each participant must take from the nest three baby goslings, braving the response of the outraged mother. With the mother goose close on their heels, the competitors must then juggle the goslings, three rotations per chick, before returning them to the nest and fleeing to the finish line. To drop a gosling is considered a bad omen for the year ahead - not to mention uncomfortable for the bird! - and so the geese jugglers practice long hours every year and must prove themselves worthy of the test. For the winner there is much honour and the choice of which gosling will eventually grace their family table as the mid-winter feast.
The origins of this strange custom has long been lost, but the elders of the town claim it was old even back in the times of Earth That Was...
Excerpt from 'A Wanderer's Guide To The Outer Rim:'
Spring is festival season on most of the settled planets and each region has its own particular way of celebrating the end of Winter. Lusitania is no different, with a celebration in every town square. Naturally there are local specialties of food and drink a plenty, but it is in the entertainments that showcase the creativity and individuality of each region.
Take the tiny town of Spakakoski. It has few resources and even less culture, but every Spring visitors come from far and wide to witness one of the stranger customs in the 'Verse. Young men and women gather to the town square to demonstrate their dexterity and skill, and not a little courage, after the first goslings of the season are hatched.
With great daring and nerves of steel, each participant must take from the nest three baby goslings, braving the response of the outraged mother. With the mother goose close on their heels, the competitors must then juggle the goslings, three rotations per chick, before returning them to the nest and fleeing to the finish line. To drop a gosling is considered a bad omen for the year ahead - not to mention uncomfortable for the bird! - and so the geese jugglers practice long hours every year and must prove themselves worthy of the test. For the winner there is much honour and the choice of which gosling will eventually grace their family table as the mid-winter feast.
The origins of this strange custom has long been lost, but the elders of the town claim it was old even back in the times of Earth That Was...
