VoK Prompts

B 01 : Basic writing prompt
Word count: 299/200
Earning: 1 white feather

While the pride celebrates many festivals including religious holidays and a founder's day, the main celebration they look forward to is the Festival of Graduation. This is celebrated annually on the summer solstice and goes from sunrise to sunset. Since the pride is always busy, they have no time or reason to celebrate every member's birthday, even though they are very close knit so they'd love to. Instead, their solution is to celebrate everyone's date of birth on one specific date. Not a minute is wasted, with the entire pride gathering to play games, feast, visit, and remember the good times and bad of the past year. This is comparable to (the United States') Thanksgiving, Independence Day, and birthday rolled into one. While this wouldn't be smart on a normal day, the lions reserve this day to enjoy themselves and are often accompanied by their normal prey as a day of peace.

The main event, though, takes place after the noon banquet. The pride spreads out all along the valley beneath their homeland, facing a center terrace. After a speech from the current ruler, the "graduation" begins. This consists of all the of the 7th year fieldsmen and 2nd year cubs moving up ranks and a couple of other fieldsmen, criminals, and refugees as well. If a new ruler needs to be crowned, then these festivities may be postponed to the next day and the celebration will last much longer.

With the pride still gathered, the evening continues with a talent show and a final feast. The night ends with a blessing from the residing priest and the stuffed, content lions fall asleep anticipating the next year's festival. While these events might not sound like much, they are what many of the pride look forward to all year long.