Day of Family Honor

The Day of Family Honour is one of the central festivities in the culture of the Archkingdom of Sigisland. It is usually observed by inviting friends to one's house and commemorating the legal ancestor who fought in the Twenty Four Years' War.

The Day of Family Honor celebrates not only the ancestor from the time of Ferdinand's war, but everything that all generations of one family have done for the Archkingdom from then until today, and as families visit each other to hear about the ancestors of others but also to share news about their current affairs and about their acquaintances, this festivity create a strong bond between all Sigislandenites of the past, present and future.

Candle and portrait

The candle that burns in every Sigislandite home on the Day of Family Honor symbolizes the flame of the Archroyal Torches from which the Archroyal Crown originates, hence the unity and strength of the Archkingdom. Noble and richer houses, which have a portrait of their founder, light a candle in front of that portrait.

Storytelling, Quiz and Ferdinanding

During the celebration, the host tells stories from the family founder's life (often connected to his valour in battle) and financially rewards the guests for their knowledge of the history of Sigisland. The strategic board game of Ferdinanding is the standard feature of each Day of Family Honour.

Origins

Returning from the Twenty-Four Years' War, many veterans had a custom, at a day of some war feat or exciting war event, they would recall it in the company of their family, friends and relatives, treating them at the same time with a rich meal and drink. This custom spread more and more throughout Sigisland, and Archking Ferdinand I himself learned about it, who saw in it the right way to strengthen national unity and preserve the memory of a heroic generation that would inspire descendants to equal heroism. That is why he passed a legislation, that every veteran of his army chooses one day a year, "the day when he did his greatest feat", and which will be celebrated as a holiday of his family as long as the Archkingdom is. He ordered that as much as possible be found about all those who fell in the war and that their memory be passed on to their descendants. Concerning that families whose members were not involved in the war nor did any useful work for the Archkingdom during the war deserving to be celebrated, he let them celebrate some of the fallen warriors who had no descendants, so every Sigislandenite received a Family Honour Day as a pride, obligation and encouraging example of heroism for future generations.

Rules of inheritance

Sons inherit the Day of Family Honor, while daughters celebrate their husband's day of family part, unless they are the sole heirs of the lineage, and the husband has older brothers or other older relatives in the line who inherit his ancestor's day and have or are likely to have their descendants, in which case the family adds the wife's last name to the husband's and the husband takes his wife's family honor day. The adopted receive the candle of the adopter, and the naturalized foreigners receive the candle of some of the previously extinguished lines of the appropriate estate or category, adding its surname to their own. So today there is no Sigislandenite who does not have a Family Honour Day, when he renews his spiritual connection with a Sigislandenite hero.