Red Festival

Red Festival is an annual UEE holiday celebrated in late January or early February. It originated in old Earth customs that celebrated the end of the year by tracking the lunisolar cycle instead of the solar cycle. Humans who followed the lunar calendar took their practice with them during the Human Colonial Expansion Era, often cementing the Red Festival as a tradition as early as the date of a colony’s foundation.

Today, the festival is celebrated by wearing colors that symbolize good fortune such as red and gold, eating long foods such as dyed red noodles or calossk tentacles, and the exchange of gilded red envelopes containing good luck tokens or credits. Recently, instead of handing the envelope directly to a recipient, givers will hide the envelopes for those deemed in need by fate to discover. Banu often join the festivities, hiding red envelopes in honor of Cassa, the Patron of Luck.