Sunday, January 1, 2012

Ask the Readers: New Year's Day

Post idea stolen from Juturna, who posts questions for writers to think about.
A fun thing to do to develop your persona is to think about what they may have been doing at a given time of year. Would your persona have done anything to celebrate the arrival of a new year? Winter is about to hit full force- what sort of preparations would they be making? What would they do to pass the time indoors?

I have no idea if Sarmatians had any sort of  celebration this time of year. Holidays falling around cross-quarter days, solstices, and equinoxes were definitely tied to agriculture (when to harvest, when to plant...). It's possible they could also be tied to calving and breeding, which would be the more prominent interest of the Sarmatians given their nomadic lifestyle, but I don't recall that being mentioned in my Archaeoastronomy class.
The steppes of Eurasia would have gotten pretty cold in winter. I imagine fur-lined kurtas, pants, and caps would be made and mended right about now if they weren't already, as well as any repairs to the covering of the wagons they lived in. I'm not sure what they would have done to pass the time.

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