The Havenworlders learn of the Human tradition of Halloween. Some Human nations have it as the day of the dead, some have it as All Hallow's Eve, either way, it's a lot of fun for the Humans, not so much for Havenworlders, and most other Deathworlders to be honest. As Humans get ready for their holiday with skulls, frightening movies, costumes, and treats, many nations tremble wondering what will happen when that festival arrived. -- DaniAndShali
This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! -- Incredibly catchy Human festival song.
Humans have an incredible fascination with things that could kill them. So much so that they invent things that could kill them if they actually existed. They invent things to scare themselves with. Then, on a specific day of their calendar[1], they all decide to bring those fears into the open and celebrate them. The undead, the monsters of their assorted fictions, deadly beasts[2], or random concepts with the word 'sexy' tacked onto the front[3]... All of them come out when the Humans celebrate this one day of horror.
As the reader might understand, the whole 'fear factor' involved in that holiday does not mesh well with Havenworlders. This has lead to 'Deathworlder Zoning', so that resident Havenworlder populations can simply avoid all the weird Deathworlder horror elements scattered all over those areas.
Once Humans learned about the relative fragilities of their Havenworlder friends, once word got out and liability was understood... an amazing change occurred. Humans kept their 'spooky' factor, that was true, but they went with blatantly fake horror elements. Skeletons with googly eyes. Goofy carved pumpkins. Cartoon fictional monsters. All of that, and a surprising amount of all-gender "Sexy X" costumes. Harmless costumes too, where the wearer was pretending to be something clearly unreal and clearly non-hazardous.
That was when the Havenworlders, tentatively at first, started to join in.
Interestingly, taking a day to side-step from reality and into a world where a Havenworlder can frighten a Deathworlder can be fun for all players. Even when it's clearly pretend.
Humans adore pretending to be frightened of their Havenworlder allies. The Havenworlders adore pretending to be scary.
[1] Some Human colonies have adapted their colonial planetary calendar to include it whilst others have not. Since all Human colonial calendars are out of sync with their origin planet anyway, it is entirely possible for all colonial Human festivals to be spread out throughout the entire Galactic Standard Calendar. Some Humans enjoy this as an excuse to leave their seasonal decorations up throughout the year. Yes, all of them at once.
[2] Thanks to more reasoned minds, those deadly beasts are (a) representational in a non-realistic manner, (b) live mimics with a guarantee of safety for all resident cogniscents, and/or (c) obvious costumes.
[3] This is no longer an obligation for those who identify as feminine, but rather an option for all gender identities.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / bridgetkamahele]
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