10 In-Universe Star Trek Holidays (And When To Celebrate Them)

3. The Gratitude Festival (And Other Bajoran Holidays)

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The Bajorans have a highly spiritual culture and celebrate many different holidays throughout the year.

The most prominent holiday in DS9, and the oldest on this list (dating back as far as 17,600 BC), is the Bajoran Gratitude Festival. This celebration (also known as the Peldor Festival) was held all across Bajor and aboard the station every year, and featured various live performances and a ritual where people would write their problems on scrolls and throw them into a fire started with bateret leaves. This festival even has its own seasonal greeting: ‘Peldor joi’.

The Bajorans also have a holiday called The Time of Cleansing, where they would fast and abstain from other pleasures for a month, similar to the real-world Muslim holiday Ramadan. Ha'mara was another Bajoran holiday that incorporates fasting, but this holiday was meant specifically to honour the anniversary of Sisko's arrival at Bajor in the first episode of Deep Space Nine, and his role as the Emissary of the Prophets. A Festival of Lights was also held in Bajor's capital for at least one celebration of Ha'mara.

None of these holidays have definite dates, and much like with the Klingons and Vulcans, it's hard to know when Bajoran holidays occur without knowing the exact length of their years.

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Marcia Fry is a writer for WhatCulture and an amateur filmmaker.