for gen :) i hope you enjoy!
for reserve league, s6, r1, seeker, pairing ive never done before
for geek pride - mythology (a fic based around religion)
NOTE — i'm not hindu, so all of my information is from the internet. please correct me if i'm wrong in anything!. i am jewish, though, so i'm correct in all of that according to my traditions. i discuss the holidays of sukkot and pitru paksha. this fic takes place in 1999, specifically, when they overlap. in 1999, sukkot fell out from september 24th through october 3rd. sukkot is the holiday where jews commemorate our ancestors being in the desert for 40 years after our exodus from egypt. during the holiday you're supposed to "live" in a hut (called a sukkah) with a leaf roof for 7/8 days (the extra day(s) are separate, it's complicated, pm me if you'd like to know more, this is vague), but most jews abide by just eating meals in the sukkah. the first two days of sukkot are actual holiday days and you can't do any work. the other days, besides for the last two, are intermediate days, or chol hamoed days, where it's still the holiday of sukkot, but you can do things that count as work. during chol hamoed, you still have to eat all of your meals in the sukkah.
in 1999, the hindu holiday of pitru paksha fell out from september 24th through october 8th. again, this is all from research on the internet, but from i've gathered, it's a hindu holiday to celebrate lord indra letting the warrior king karna to return to earth for 15 days after his death. king karna had donated jewels and gold instead of food on earth, so when he came to heaven, he was fed with jewels and gold, which couldn't sustain him. he was able to return to earth to make amends and donate food so he could get meals of food. during this holiday, shraddha is performed with three parts: pindadan, the offering of pinda to the ancestors; tarpan, the offering of water mixed with kusha grass, barely, flour, and black sesame; and feeding the brahmin, or giving food to the brahmin priests. during this time, it's auspicious to read from the holy scriptures and you should avoid engaging in new endeavors, eating non-vegetarian foods, shaving or getting haircuts, eating onions, eating garlic, or eating junk food.
Sources (remove parentheses): w .org(/)natural-cycles/pitru-paksha, .com(/)event/pitru-paksha/
glossary -
sukkot - holiday of celebrating the jewish people's journey through the desert
chol hamoed - the intermediate days of the holiday where it's still the holiday, but you can do work
sukkah - a hut with a leaf roof where jews have to eat during sukkot. you must be able to see the stars through the roof
yom tovim - yiddish for holidays. literally means "good days". refers to the parts of the holidays that aren't chol hamoed, where you can't do work. the first and last days of a holiday
1115 words by gdocs
Anthony hasn't spent a holiday away from home in so long. When he attended Hogwarts, he had gotten special permission to go home for the bigger holidays, provided he still kept up with his work. Even now, after the war, and after he's moved out, he spent the past high holidays at his parents house. Those, though, were only three days all together.
Sukkot is an entire eight days. He doesn't particularly want to intrude on his parents for that long. Even if he only stays for the actual holiday part and not chol hamoed, he still has to build a sukkah to eat in, which is daunting by itself. Plus, it's not like he can go to his parents every single year. He has to learn how to celebrate a holiday without him, and delaying it doesn't mean he won't have to do it eventually.
Besides, he has Padma now. Him and Padma have been dating for nearly five years, ever since their Yule Ball at Hogwarts. Even throughout the war, they had maintained their relationship, and they had decided to move in with each other after the panic of the war was over.
Now that the war is long past, and they can finally relax, Anthony keeps on finding new issues. He had hoped that the war would be the crux of their problems, but of course he hadn't thought of the yom tovim yet. It's one thing, he supposes, to not see each other for a few days while he celebrates the holidays with his parents. It's another to have to celebrate them together.
Now, Anthony retreats from the bathroom where he's been hiding, agonizing over what he's going to do for Sukkot. He walks past their bedroom, where he knows Padma is having a lie-in, and he goes to their apartment's balcony. They had gotten an apartment on the top floor of their apartment building, which Anthony had disliked. Now, though, as he glances up to look at the sky, he's grateful for it. It'll be small — their balcony isn't that spacious — but Anthony can make a proper sukkah out here.
He'll be able to celebrate the holidays, right here. The best part is that he can even celebrate them with Padma, and bring her into his religion.
…
By the time Padma wakes up an hour later, Anthony has already had the time to call his mother about making his own sukkah and celebrating Sukkot on his own. He had already measured their balcony, because of course his mother wanted to make sure her son got a perfect sukkah for his first Sukkot away. His mother can be a little overbearing, but it makes Anthony feel better that he's not going through this blind.
"Hi," Padma says as she comes into the room, pressing a kiss onto Anthony's lips.
"Hi," he says, a little bit breathless as he looks over his girlfriend. He's still amazed by how beautiful she is, even after all these years. He watches her long brown hair as she pours a cup of coffee from the pot Anthony had made.
"Thank you," she says to him, raising her cup towards him. He smiles at her in response, wondering how he should bring up the topic of Sukkot with her. Should he just come right out and tell her? There's no reason she would have a problem with it, he knows; she's never had a problem with his holidays before. Still, he wants to be careful in bringing it up.
He doesn't just want to celebrate Sukkot at home; he wants to celebrate it with Padma. He doesn't want to scare her away by overwhelming her with a whole bunch of traditions at once. He thinks about building a sukkah with her, and them eating dinner below the stars, and he thinks of them doing the same with their family in years to come.
He'd like that, he really would.
"So, Padma," he says slowly, as she comes and sits down next to him, still sipping her coffee. "I don't know if you know what next week is?" he asks, on the off chance she knows about Sukkot already.
Padma's jaw drops open and she slaps her own forehead. Anthony didn't actually expect her to know about Sukkot, but he supposes this makes things easier for him.
"I completely forgot!" she exclaims. "Pitru Paksha's next week!"
Anthony's not sure how to respond. He assumes that it's a holiday of Padma's, maybe, but he doesn't know what it is. Almost at once, he feels guilty for assuming that she'll go along with his traditions when he's never tried to celebrate hers. Maybe they could celebrate both of the holidays.
"Oh," Anthony says. "It's also Sukkot next week. The Jewish holiday. I was hoping that we could celebrate it together."
Padma bites her lip, considering her words. Anthony's always loved the thought she puts behind all of her words, and he still loves her thoughtfulness now, but he wishes he could know what she's thinking.
"When's the date of Sukkot?" she asks, and it makes Anthony smile at her with endearment, the way she slightly stumbles over the Hebrew words. He's sure he's not any better at Hindi, but he wants to be.
"It starts next Friday night," he replies. He crumbles slightly, when he sees Padma frown. He can tell that she's thinking deeply, her brows furrowed and a wrinkle forming between them.
"You're not supposed to start new undertakings during Pitru Paksha," she tells him, and the disappointment must be clear on Anthony's face, because she reaches across the table and grabs his hand, rubbing his thumb with hers. "I don't know if exploring Judaism with you would count but…"
"I wouldn't ask you to not celebrate your holiday," Anthony says, even though she's not offering. He still wants to make that clear though.
"And I wouldn't ask you to not celebrate yours," she replies.
Anthony sighs. He knows that this isn't the only Sukkot he'll ever have, but he still wants to hold onto this image he had of celebrating it with Padma.
"Hey," she says, squeezing his hand. He squeezes hers back. "There's always next year, right?"
Anthony decided to focus on that. He'll celebrate Sukkot by himself this year, but he'll definitely want to celebrate with Padma in years to come. He nods, and then he realizes that there's no Jewish law that he knows of like that.
"You think you can teach me more about Pitru Paksha?" he asks.
Padma grins at him, and in that moment, Anthony can't wait to celebrate everything with her, for years and years to come.