Disclaimer: The Hunger Games Trilogy is property of Suzanne Collins. This is a parody fanwork by fans for fans. No money was made off of the creation of this fanwork. Most of the carols mentioned are traditional and in the public domain, the only ones that aren't are "Silver Bells" by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans; "I'll Be Home for Christmas" by Kim Gannon, Walter Kent and Buck Ram; "Light One Candle" by Peter Yarrow; and "Somewhere in My Memory" by John Williams.
Carols of the Districts
By FanficAllergy
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Although Panem was a wholly secular society, there were still traces of the civilization that came before. The one that ruled before the Cataclysm. The one whose fallen cities were still occasionally used as battlefields for children to fight to the death in. When it came to the midwinter holiday, each district had its own way of celebrating.
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Capitol - Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming
The Capitol didn't see the midwinter holiday as anything other than a celebration of the end of the Victory Tour and a chance to give friends and family extravagant gifts. The whole thing had turned into a competition as to who could give the best gifts. But no one could beat President Snow in that regard. Every year, he unveiled a new species of rose that he named after whoever he felt was the most important person to touch Panem that year.
In the year of the Seventy Fourth Hunger Games, the rose unveiled that year was a beautiful white rose with delicate lavender veining along the outside petals and a deep orange center hidden within. The scent evoked memories of spicy sugar cookies and freshly baked bread. Snow called it The Lovers' Rose.
All who saw it marveled at the flower's beauty. The only downside, they said, was that when cut the flower withered and died so quickly. Such a shame, really, since it was such a masterfully constructed flower.
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District One - Silver Bells
The midwinter holiday was one of the busiest in District One. They had so many orders to fulfill for the Capitol and everyone had to have them quickly and with bells on. Literally. As the artisans and jewelers rushed to make all of their orders, the metal smiths made bells. Thousands of them. At least one for every order.
Those bells that weren't good enough for the Capitol were saved for the district itself and carefully strung together on wire and hung up in the tribute graveyard as a reminder of what happens when you didn't please the Capitol.
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District Two - I'll Be Home for Christmas
The midwinter holiday was always bittersweet in District Two. On one hand, it was a time of rest and celebration since the stonecutters were allowed to leave the quarries because it was too cold to mine the stone safely. Violent freezing and thawing and all of that. So as soon as the temperatures dropped too far below freezing, the work crews would bundle up and return home to their families. It was always a time of celebration.
On the other hand, many families were missing a member in the Peacekeepers Corps. It was an honor to serve the Capitol, to be sure. But when all of the rest of the families were celebrating reuniting with their loved ones, the Peacekeepers' families had to content themselves with hurried phone calls and redacted cards. But that wasn't enough. Not until their tour of duty was over, could the Peacekeepers come home. And that time couldn't come fast enough for most families.
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District Three - Light One Candle
People were often surprised that in a technologically advanced district like Three candles were still used, but for the people of Three it was the candle's very archaic nature that appealed to them and it was why in all of their ceremonies real candles were used rather than the special flickering lights they manufactured for the Capitol.
For eight nights, they would light a candle and place it in a special candleholder and then put the candleholder in the window. Until at the end of the eighth night, there were eight candles burning. Each candle had its own significance. The first was lit to remember all those who had died of old age during the year. The second was for all those who didn't make it through their first year. The third for those lost in accidents. The fourth for those who took their own lives, a surprisingly high number. The fifth for those lost to illness. The sixth for those lost for other reasons, typically to the Capitol taking them. The seventh and eighth candles were lit for the two tributes sacrificed each year to the Hunger Games. Even if one of Three's tributes won that year, a candle was still lit for them, because no matter how much their heart still beat in their chest something inside of them had died.
It was rumored that the tradition of lighting candles was in celebration of a miracle that happened long ago in some distant land. The people of Three found that hard to believe. But they never stopped hoping that one day a miracle would occur and they would no longer have reason to light candles.
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District Four - I Saw Three Ships
District Four was the only district whose holiday celebrations had a more practical meaning. Each day, for three days, three fishing ships would sail off in the morning and return three days later, their holds filled with fish. The three ships stayed together while out and sailed back into port together. Nine boats in total over a period of six days.
Unlike the rest of the year, there were no quotas. No required catches. All of the fish caught in that time would go for the district itself. For three days, District Four would feast on the fish that didn't preserve as well or those delicacies, like fish roe, that were best when fresh. Then the flurry of preserving would take place.
Most years there'd be enough fish caught to feed the district for much of the year. But not always. Oftentimes one or more of the ships would get lost at sea in a storm. So it was always with great relief when the voice of a child perched high in a lookout called out "I saw three ships!"
It was the best part of the year.
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District Five - Auld Lang Syne
In Five, there wasn't much of a celebration other than the toast. On December thirty first, each man, woman, and child would take an empty mug and go to the center of the square. The same place where the Reaping took place. There they got in line and each got a dribble of something alcoholic in their glass. No more than a mouthful. Nothing more than that was needed.
When everyone had their ration, the Mayor went up and raised his own mug up and the district mimicked his action.
"To kindness in the coming year and to those that kindness forgot!" he said as loud as he could without the aid of a microphone.
In response, the district answered back with, "To kindness!"
And then everyone took a sip from their glass.
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District Six - Jingle Bells
Most of the other districts didn't know that Six was known for its horses. Horses were a form of transportation and Six bred them up just as much as they built the cars, trains, and hovercraft the Capitol and the other districts so relied on.
In the winter, the horse farms of Six offered sleigh rides as a way to train the horses used for the parade in the Capitol. A sleigh wasn't that much different from a chariot and it was good training. Over the years, the farmers would accumulate bells as gifts from grateful Capitol patrons and they'd sew them to old harnesses so that the bells would jingle.
The children loved it.
None of them ever knew that the horses they'd played behind in the winter would be used to escort two of their own to their deaths each summer.
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District Seven - O Tannenbaum
Each family in Seven had what was called a Family Tree. It was planted in the front yard of each house when a new family moved in and cut down when the family moved out or died. The size of the tree was a point of pride and many families refused to move to better housing, even if they could afford it, because they didn't want to lose their tree.
Most trees were pine or spruce. But there were some fir trees as well. In winter, families would try to outdo each other with decorating their trees. Even the poorest families would participate, making wax paper chains or bows out of rags.
Then, on the longest night of the year, each family would place a candle on top of the tree and light it, letting it burn all night.
For one night of the year, Seven was as brightly lit as the Capitol.
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District Eight - Away in the Manger
In Eight, the textile mills didn't run one day a year. That day was Christmas. A holiday that was no longer acknowledged by the Capitol, but was celebrated in Eight with singular devotion.
No gifts were given; instead, the families set up a little display signifying Jesus, Mary, and Joseph along with the other people present at the Savior's birth. Each member of the family would work to add to the crèche: a sheep, a wiseman, a shepherd, etc. It didn't matter what, just that it was completed by the time the person moved out. Only those tributes taken in the Games never completed their figurines.
When a couple was married, the bride received a Mary figurine and the groom a Joseph one. It was tradition that they would make the center piece together: the wife the baby, the husband the manger. Then, on their first Christmas, they would set up the small display. Only then, would they be considered truly married.
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District Nine - Here We Come A' Wassailing
Like in Five, the midwinter celebration in Nine was based around drinking. Unlike in Five, the participants received more than just a mouthful. Each family would nominate an unmarried member of their family to perform the Wassail Walk. Of the nominees, ten people would be chosen. Those ten would have to go from door to door, singing old songs, and at each house they would have to stop and each drink a cup of wassail: mulled wine, beer, or hard cider.
The point was to see which of the ten would make it the furthest. Most years they barely managed to make it through the town before falling over. But some years, they made it out to the farmhands' section of town where the wassail would be of poorer quality.
It was considered good luck to be visited by all of the wassailers, and the luck got progressively worse as more and more of the ten passed out. Only three times had one of the ten actually managed to drink their way across the whole district. Those years, coincidentally, were also the years that Nine had winners in the Hunger Games.
The winner, if they didn't die of alcohol poisoning, was given a cask of beer from the brewer and several loaves of bread from the baker as a reward for the luck they brought to the houses of Nine.
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District Ten - While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
While taking care of animals never ended, the people of District Ten had worked out a system so that everyone got to spend one midwinter holiday with their family. There were four holidays they celebrated, Chanukah, Yule, Christmas, and New Year's Day or Chayulmas Days as most of the people in Ten shortened it to.
The first day of Chayulmas, one fourth of the shepherds, ranchers, and poulterers would go and celebrate with their families and friends for a few days, making sure to be back before the second day of Chayulmas. And the process would repeat with the third and fourth days.
It was a well oiled system, dating back to before the Dark Days. Everyone got a chance to go home and everyone had to work a little harder for about two weeks. It worked out in the end. Unfortunately it did mean that the people were a little short on sleep since winter + longer nights + hungry predators = flocks in danger. So as much as each hand looked forward to being able to see their loved ones, they all breathed a sigh of relief when Chayulmas was over and they could all go back to a normal sleep schedule.
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District Eleven - Somewhere In My Memory
The people in Eleven were not allowed time off for any of the holidays. Because of Eleven's climate, there was always some crop that was in need of tending, harvesting, or planting. So it was rare when a family was actually home and together and not out in the fields somewhere.
Still, the people of District Eleven celebrated when they had the chance or, if that chance never happened, they celebrated in their dreams.
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District Twelve - The Holly and the Ivy
Twelve was known for three things: coal, poverty, and music. So it was unsurprising that all three played a part in their midwinter celebration.
As in most districts, the major industry, coal mining, shut down for the day. Each miner was given a bucket of coal as a gift and then several smaller buckets were loaded onto a cart and carried up into town. These buckets of coal were given to the families of all those killed in the mines. It was one of the few times the people in the Seam accepted charity.
Then, everyone gathered in the square to celebrate. A large bonfire was built and the crowd segregated into two groups: male and female. They stood on opposite ends of the bonfire and a small group of old musicians would settle down to play.
First there'd be the singing contests, culminating with a sing off of who could make up the best songs about holly or ivy. The men would sing about the masculine qualities of holly while the women would sing about the feminine qualities of Ivy. Four judges consisting of Sae, the Mayor, Haymitch, and Rooba would decide which singer did the best. In case of a tie, the winner was decided by which tune the mockingjays in the square sang the loudest.
Then came the dancing. The people of Twelve knew how to dance and they loved to show it off. Again there were contests using holly and Ivy. Dancers would have to weave in and out between holly bushes and ivy cords and not get tangled, trip, or lose their rhythm.
The winners of both the singing and dancing contests were congratulated and awarded with bottles of white liquor and some meat. For years, it was the only reason why Katniss competed in the singing contest. It was also the reason why her father competed so many years ago. And it was on one of those midwinter nights that her mother fell in love with her father.
Once the contests were over, the men would rejoin the women and the dancing would begin in earnest and last all through the night. Midwinter night was the one night of the year that it didn't matter if someone was Merchant or Seam. Everyone danced with everyone else.
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District Thirteen - 'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime (Huron Carol)
Holidays were not observed in Thirteen. Not officially, at least.
Unofficially, the eldest citizens would take a group of children no older than eight up to the surface during reflection on the longest night of the year. There, they would sing the old songs that no one remembered the translations to and teach the children how to sing them phonetically. For most of the children, it would be their only time allowed outside of the stifling tunnels unless they joined the military or the infiltration corps. Many wondered what the lyrical language meant and who had spoken it.
It didn't matter, the tradition did. They would spend that hour singing, learning, and marveling at the midwinter moon.
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AN:
Written: 12/17/13
Revised: 12/21/13
Beta read by RoseFyre.
So this fic came into being after hearing "Baby it's cold outside" one too many times this holiday season. In an effort to ignore the lyrics of the song (which are really disturbing if you think about it), I started thinking of what holiday songs could work for the various districts. And this is what you get.
Lots of garbled traditions. Be thankful I didn't have Nine nailing toast to their doors or the Capitol ordering Buckets of District Nine Chicken for their Christmas meals or Eight carving nativity scenes out of radishes. I thought about it.
The one carol I wasn't familiar with before doing this fic was "'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime" which was originally written by a Jesuit Missionary to the Huron sometime in the early 1640s in Wyandot, the Huron Language. It didn't get an English translation until the early twentieth century. The song itself uses a lot of references to the Huron culture at the time. It's really quite fascinating. So rather than using the English lyrics, the people in Thirteen are singing in Wyandot or what's left of it.
I also wanted to have songs that aren't associated with Christmas so there is at least one Hannukah, Yule, and New Year's Day song included in the group as well as a disputed carol or two. I did deliberately leave Kwanzaa out, mostly because I couldn't find a song for it.
I hope you enjoyed!
Happy Holidays!