Dancing Day
Description:
Venerating the function of the Concert Hall, this celebration kicks off with a communal breakfast under the late sunrise of fall. Commemorating the distinction between those who enjoy the Concert Hall’s entertainments, and those who enter the Novel Universe to gain the experience necessary to “design” these games and stories, “Designers” are members specially selected over the year for their contributions to the Community. Donning special uniforms, Designers join the Sages to prepare and serve the breakfast. Again, Dancing Day is a Community-based celebration, and those members of Spheres who do not belong to a Community may be invited by any Community to join them– otherwise, they may celebrate on their own, with or without a Sage present. Unlike Return, which takes place at the Sphere-level, Dancing Day is celebrated at the full Community-level.
After breakfast, the Sages set out and maintain an endless buffet of healthy snacks at the Community Center. Sages and more experienced members of the Community are encouraged to spend time at the Community Center, assisting junior members as they decide on who to contact, and what special items to create. Dancing Day is filled with food, conversation, and creating handmade gifts to symbolize the unique nature of the Hall: Signature-Frequency Sets in constant co-creation. Citizens virtually and / or physically connect with Citizens of other Bodies, either one-on-one or in group chats. Dancing Day is about engaging with as many loved ones as possible. With that in mind, during this special period of the celebration, it’s encouraged to prioritize one’s virtual connections, and reach out to distant friends or family to reestablish contact.
To initiate the Grand Ceremony of Dancing Day, members exchange their gifts, like Sets swapping information, and join together in dance. This dance symbolizes the interchange of Complete Information– individuals reacting to one another, both individually and as a whole. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the music and dance, except for the handful of pre-ordained Designers who prepare dinner. The food’s preparation symbolizes the trials and joys of life, necessary to design the complex characters of the Concert Hall’s stories and games, while the serving of the meal symbolizes the entertainments themselves.
During the feast, everyone is invited to stand and publicly retell highlights of their day. After the meal, Designers are honored with stories supporting their nomination. The event concludes with a grand finale– a movie, show, light display, or some shared experience reflecting the Community’s Primary Organizing Pillar– meant to focus the membership in a single moment of unity.
Practices:
Throughout the preceding year, members submit nominations for fellow members to become Designers for the upcoming Dancing Day. Sages are never nominated as Designers– they fill their own special role for the Day. The Body also accepts ideas from the membership for the Designers’ special outfits and costumes. These ideas are sent to the previous year’s Designers for evaluation and ultimate approval.
Designers are selected, not elected– the membership makes nominations, but, as NUC experts, Sages have the final say in all Designers. Priority is given to those Citizens who’ve participated as a Designer the fewest number of times in the past. Mostly, willing participants with the most passionate nominations fill the open slots first. For any remaining open slots, Sages may then prepare nominations for members they personally believe in.
By the end of spring, a list of outfits and costumes for the Designers is presented to the Community, each member invited to register their opinion on each option. The list may include ideas submitted by the Community, past years’ Designers, or both. However, the list itself is created and finalized solely by the previous year’s Designers. An explicit honor of being a Designer is the opportunity to participate in the selection of the following year’s attire. This act symbolizes the idea that, in the Concert Hall, we all influence each other’s decision to depart the Hall, and spend a lifetime in the Novel Universe.
By the start of the Lunar Quorum preceding Dancing Day, Designers from the previous year ideally have finalized their decisions in collaboration. If they cannot come to a consensus by Quorum, QT Preference or Approval voting is used by the group to select the outfits.
During the Lunar Quorum preceding Dancing Day, the new Designers and their outfits are announced. Also, those who nominated the members are privately alerted that they have been chosen to relay a story or some reasoning for the Designer’s nomination. Members must opt out of these roles within two days, so replacements can be found and names published in the Quorum’s upcoming newsletter.
Long before sunrise on Dancing Day, the Sages and Designers arrive at the Community Center to co-create a scrumptious breakfast for the entire Community, set up the venue for the citizenry’s “glorious” arrival, and make any time-sensitive preparations for the end-of-day feast, called the “Feast of Knowing,” symbolizing the Concert Hall’s Complete Information returning to each SFS as they enter the Hall.
Throughout these preparations, clusters of Sages and Designers take turn eating breakfast together. Once they’ve all eaten, the venue ready, the Feast’s prep done, and breakfast set, the Designers dress in their special attire.
The first outfit the Designers don are uniforms, custom-fit for each Designer during the lunar cycle preceding Dancing Day, and are designed as unique keepsakes for that year’s Designers. Not too ornate or elaborate, the outfits should nonetheless be functional, flexible, and professional– special, like an occupational uniform. In other words, one should be able to use them in daily life, or equally, most special occasions– whenever, in the future, the member wishes to relive the magic of being a Dancing Day Designer.
With the rising sun, the Community gathers at their Community Center, and is welcomed by the Designers and Sages for breakfast. Designers and Sages make a spectacle of welcoming the citizenry to the venue, incorporating such things as singing, dancing, and other forms of showmanship. This vital moment symbolizes a glorious entry into the Concert Hall– each Signature-Frequency Set astounded by the beauty and warmth of reunion with those both known on Earth, but also, only in death.
While the Designers manage breakfast, the Community Sages give speeches noting the future goals and priorities of the Community’s pillars. Once the speeches are done and the last member has left the Center after breakfast, the Designers clean up, while the Sages set up and maintain a buffet of snacks for the Community to enjoy onsite.
The Sage’s snacks replace any formal lunch, allowing the membership flexibility in scheduling social connections and creating their gifts. Additionally, having a single gathering point for the membership provides a hub for endless collaboration, spurring insight into the Day’s activities, especially for young or new Citizens. With the Sage’s delightful, abundant, healthy treats both located at and consumed in the same place, members struggling with how to spend their time might find Sages and more experienced Citizens on-hand throughout the afternoon to provide guidance with questions such as: who should the young Citizen connect with, or what gifts should a novice make, and for whom?
From the end of breakfast into the late afternoon, members create handmade treats / gifts, and virtually / physically contact other Cult members to reminisce over the events of the previous year / decade. If they wish to do so, Designers may change out of their uniforms into more comfortable attire, while they join the membership in these reminiscences.
Note: should there be further time-sensitive preparations required for the Feast of Knowing, they are handled at this point. The actual assembly of the Feast happens during the dancing portion of the Day, and ideally should take between one and two hours. Citizens need enough time to enjoy dancing, but too long, and, at that late hour, exhaustion inevitably sets in. The Feast’s preparation and the dancing happen simultaneously to symbolize the nature of the Concert Hall– novelty is co-created by both the interaction (dancing) of the Hall’s inhabitants, and the stories and games (food) we experience in the beyond-life. Most salient is the fact that this meal is provided to the Audience (membership) by the Designers (those who’ve endured morality in order to fashion the Hall’s edifying entertainments).
At some point in the late afternoon, when practical, the Designers announce the preparation of the Feast of Knowing, and members return at their leisure to the Community Center for dancing. While the Designers create the Feast, Citizens are encouraged to stand onstage between songs, giving short speeches / relaying highlights from the day’s contacts with other members.
Once the Feast is prepared, Designers change into their elaborate costumes, and call the Body to gather. How the Body is ritually called to the Feast should honor the Community’s POP and its membership. Communities are encouraged to periodically update this ritual’s title and itinerary to best reflect the membership’s current culture.
Like so many aspects of Dancing Day, the nature and assignment of the Designers’ costumes (even uniforms) are flexible– completely up to individual Communities in order to better express their unique qualities as a collection of Spheres. For example, the costumes may be created for that specific year, or reused year-after-year. They may be assigned to all Designers, or a unique costume created for each. At a minimum, the previous year’s Designers ideally choose the breakfast uniforms gifted to the current Designers, but that does not have to be the case. The Community, Designers, or some random process may select either the style of the uniforms and / or costumes. Either or both may be whimsical, serious, or even scary– El Día de los Muertos or Halloween costumes. They may even touch on historical or occupational subjects, but no matter the theme, all costumes and uniforms are encouraged to reflect the relationship between the wider world and Community. This could focus on recent Community achievements or challenges, their POP, or at the very least, the individual Designers themselves. The only requirement is that the Designers receive some outfit as a physical keepsake of their time as a Designer, and don some thoughtful attire to distinguish themselves during the two meals.
Decked out, the Designers serve the food for the Feast of Knowing to their Community, with the Sages eating as well.
Meanwhile, the Audience’s attention is focused onstage in a variety of ways: members may continue to voluntarily stand onstage, relaying highlights from the day or other information they wish to share; formal speeches and / or performances may be held in-place of / in addition to member participation, including, but not limited to, stand-up comedy, interviews, Q&As, skits, game shows, TED talks, or the like; or, in the worst case scenario, a movie might flicker onscreen. Whatever the Community desires, some form of entertainment plays center stage, allowing the membership’s focus to pool around some communal activity as they consume the dinner together.
After the Feast, those chosen members who nominated the Designers are called upon to testify as to why they believe the member deserved to be highlighted that year for their direct contributions to the Community. Following their speeches, any member who wishes to add a story about any of the Designers is welcome to do so.
The Designers exit the stage, change back into comfortable attire, and eat, as a group, their portion of the Feast in a special room dedicated for that purpose. The room itself is decorated by the Sages the day prior to Return. Through the room’s decoration, Sages are encouraged to highlight each Designers’ achievements and milestones of life, the way a funeral might.
While the Designers eat– with Sages and volunteering Community members acting as the Designers’ servers– the rest of the Community works together to tidy up the Community Center, while the Eldest Sages oversee the setup / final preparations for the grand finale.
Once the finale is ready and the Designers have eaten, the entire Community comes together to quickly clean up after the Designers– a reflection of the work the Designers did throughout the Day, returning to them through the Community’s efforts. A major part of Dancing Day is the ritualized opportunity to actively care for, be cared for, and ultimately connect with fellow members.
With the membership gathered, the grand finale takes place, and again, at some point afterward, the whole Community, including the Designers, works in cooperation to complete the day’s cleanup.
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