Life Day
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Wookiees celebrating Life Day on Kashyyyk by the Tree of Life. |
Life Day was the
fictional
Wookiee holiday celebrated by the inhabitants of
Kashyyyk. It was originally featured in
The Star Wars Holiday Special with its airing in 1978.
Unlike most aspects of the normally well-crafted
Star Wars universe, Life Day is utterly expedient, inserted into the show to provide a very basic goal for the
heroes, and lend a bit of topical relevance to the material, which would otherwise be completely inappropriate for a
television holiday special.
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Wookiees, including Chewbacca and his family, approaching the celebration in The Star Wars Holiday Special. |
The Star Wars Holiday Special
The Star Wars Holiday Special gives us some insight into the customs of Life Day.
Chewbacca's wife prepares a feast,
gifts are exchanged between acquaintances,
candles are burned
ritualistically, and Wookiees don red
robes and join into groups to observe the day.
Singing is involved.
Printed media
Another source which gives us a view of Life Day for the Wookiees is the
1979 children's book
The Wookiee Storybook. This book tells us that on this holiday, a certain fruit is sacred to the wookiees as part of their feasting ceremonies. In the 1979
Russ Manning newspaper comic strip The Kashyyyk Depths, the regular cast of
A New Hope once again returned to Kashyyyk for another Life Day celebration.
Video games
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A screenshot from the SWG website of Life Day |
In the video game
Star Wars: Galaxies, players are given the opportunity to explore more thoroughly the Wookiee holiday of Life Day. Its customs are more thoroughly explored, and the player is encouraged to celebrate the holiday around the human time of December. The official site for
Star Wars: Galaxies devotes an
entire page to explaining this unique feature of the game.
*
Fan site elaborating on the holiday special.*
Star Wars.com's article "The Forest of Gargantuans.," which details all early appearances of Kashyyyk and the wookiee family in the EU.*
The official Star Wars: Galaxies website, which elaborates on the customs of Life Day.
