Luna Life Days

Hurry, dear.  The tour starts in twenty minutes, and we still need to collect our friends, the Jeffersons.
I know, Jenae. I just need to get this blasted hat on straight. Why must I be the one wearing this thrice-accursed massive hat?
It's the tradition, Mr. Executive. You are sponsor of this particular tour, so you must have the Ostentatious Hat. How else are the tourists to know who to follow?
Well, it's a dumb tradition. I have it, so we can go collect the Jeffersons, and we will be at the head of today's Delicious Foods Tour, with several minutes to spare.

The life of the corporate elite among the domes of Luna is the subject of a thousand holo-vids.  What is less well covered is the history and practice of the holidays unique to the oldest human offworld colony.  Once each year, starting on the third Monday in October, one of the more interesting holidays is held.  Luna Life Days is, today, a seven day celebration of the luxury and freedom afforded to the residents of Luna; far in excess of that available anywhere else in the solar system.  The celebration starts with a formal announcement of the "Arrival of the Ship", and the first "tour" is sponsored by the Luna puppet government, applies to every venue, and invites every resident.  Thereafter, there is a flurry of dozens, sometimes hundreds, of private "tours" each day sponsored by various Corporate Executives.  The week is spent, by most, wandering from tour to tour eating and drinking to wild excess, until, on the final day, the strangest tradition of all.  The entire population of Luna takes a full Earth day, twenty four hours, without food and with only water to drink; a fast to slightly balance the bacchanalia of the prior five days.  Nobody remembers, these days, why the last day of the celebration is a hard fast, or why the biggest celebration of the year for the residents of Luna is a massive roaming feast where food is the central focus of the holiday.  The truth, however, is fascinating and highly instructive.

Traditions are a major element of Luna Life Days.  The most obvious is that every eating venue on Luna changes their menu for Luna Life Days, with every normal item temporarily discontinued, and completely different items available for the holiday.  The menu is expected to contain much more fresh fruits, high quality meats, fresh vegetables, than normal fare, and cooks, chefs, and restaurateurs compete to offer the most unusual and unheard-of delights.  Another important tradition is the Ostentatious Hat.  Every tour sponsor is expected to not merely pay the cost, but also to lead the tour, so they wear a very large and ostentatious hat, the more garish and unmistakable, the better; the theory is that the hat ensures that increasingly overfull or inebriated tourists do not get lost.  There are many other traditions, and few agree on them, or how long any given tradition lasts; it is almost as though the most important tradition is to make up and invent new traditions on the fly.  

History

As fascinating as the events and traditions of the Luna Life Days are, the history is, perhaps even more interesting, not least because it is almost entirely lost to history. The colonization of earth's moon started before any other colony effort, the first real base was laid down in 2022, and by 2030 the first true dome was completed. The people of Luna had established themselves as a separate and independent nation by then, mostly supported by a combination of mining and solar smelting operations, as well as low gravity manufacturing. The moon is an inhospitable place for human life, however, and even in 2140 Luna relies heavily on equipment and supplies brought in from elsewhere. In 2030 the majority of food was engineered foodstuffs made primarily from tank-grown microorganisms; the availability of fresh foods and real meat was a rare event. In order to maintain morale and stability, the colony leaders did arrange a single major delivery of fresh fruits, vegetables, treats, and real meats once each year in mid October. Because those foods cannot be kept for long, it quickly became a tradition to spend a week, or as long as necessary, sharing and consuming these rare luxuries throughout the colony before these precious foods spoiled. After the development of effective fusion rocketry deliveries to Luna became less expensive and much more frequent, and by 2050 fresh and natural foods were no longer a rarity, but as common as they were on earth. By 2070, when the domes of Luna were finally closed, permanently, to outside immigration, the life of a resident of Luna had gone from one of survival to one of extreme luxury. In all this time the holiday of Luna Life Days continued, but as the foods became less scarce the holiday changed from celebrating the continuation of life to celebrating the extreme luxury of life among the elite of all humanity.