Guild Wars 2

Any specific reason for there not being an Easter event?

I mean, I get the whole “there was no Jesus in Tyria” idea but 1. there was no Jack O’ Lantern either yet we do have Halloween, 2. nowadays it’s far more about the chocolate bunnies and eggs than about the religion, and 3. who cares? are you going to tie your hands on principle instead of having fun?

The super adventure festival goes on until april 20. Personally I think it makes little sense to have 2 festivals at the same time. If you think an event is needed, why not organise an in-game event? they tend to be quite popular

How coincidental that super adventure festival takes place at exactly the same time…

Dawnbreaker.6215:

How coincidental that super adventure festival takes place at exactly the same time…

It is a bit, considering April 1st is the same time every year, and Easter isn’t.

Well according to Wikipedia:

“Easter and the holidays that are related to it are moveable feasts, in that they do not fall on a fixed date in the Gregorian or Julian calendars (both of which follow the cycle of the sun and the seasons). Instead, the date for Easter is determined on a lunisolar calendar similar to the Hebrew calendar. The First Council of Nicaea (325) established two rules, independence of the Jewish calendar and worldwide uniformity, which were the only rules for Easter explicitly laid down by the Council. No details for the computation were specified; these were worked out in practice, a process that took centuries and generated a number of controversies. (See also Computus and Reform of the date of Easter.) In particular, the Council did not decree that Easter must fall on Sunday. This was already the practice almost everywhere.⁴⁹[incomplete short citation]

In Western Christianity, using the Gregorian calendar, Easter always falls on a Sunday between 22 March and 25 April inclusive, within about seven days after the astronomical full moon.⁵⁰ The following day, Easter Monday, is a legal holiday in many countries with predominantly Christian traditions.

Eastern Christianity bases its calculations on the Julian Calendar. Because of the 13-day difference between the calendars between 1900 and 2099, 21 March corresponds, during the 21st century, to 3 April in the Gregorian Calendar. Easter therefore varies between 4 April and 8 May on the Gregorian calendar (the Julian calendar is no longer used as the civil calendar of the countries where Eastern Christian traditions predominate). Also, because the Julian “full moon” is always several days after the astronomical full moon, the eastern Easter is often later, relative to the visible moon’s phases, than western Easter.":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter#Date

It seems that Easter, while variable, is always within a certain time period that is close to April 1st (atleast for Western Christianity). So yeah, I don’t see a need for an extra festival to celebrate Easter in Tyria when SAB is pretty close to it anyway.

In GW1, in-game festivals are linked to the calendar, not to any holiday. Since Easter and Lunar New Year are based on lunar events, they might be as much as 4 weeks different from Sweet Treats weekend and Canthan New Year.

Vaguely similarly, GW1 & GW2 ‘Wintersday’ & ‘Halloween’ have only coincidentally started on the same dates as their real life counterparts; they generally start & end based on the convenience of players and developers.

Finally, there are 1000s of holidays that aren’t celebrated or commemorated in games. Why single out Easter?

In other words, what specific reason is there for including an in-game counterpart to Easter in the first place? Why not celebrate the Summer Solstice or International Workers Day or the French Revolution?

edit: changed holiday; kitten filter doesn’t approve of a certain, explosive British event involving masks and the Parliament

I don’t think we’ll see an easter event in GW2, although I’m guessing we might get some gem shop easter-themed items such as bunny ears or an outfit.

And as much as I love these in-game holiday events, I don’t see why it is such a common practice to tie them to real life holidays. This is Tyria, with its own culture and history, which leaves a huge space for imagination. I’m thinking events like the queen’s jubilee? Famous battles’ anniversaries? Holidays celebrating the old Gods? Current SAB event is a perfect example of what I have in mind.

Also, given the fact that we don’t see any seasonal changes (there will always be autumn in Ascalon, or at least these maps feel autumn-ish to me), there is no reason to celebrate the comming of spring, for example.

@Illconceived Was Na I’d like to know the reason why should anybody have a problem with the date 5 november. :)

Probably the same reason there isn’t a St. Patrick’s Day event, a Day of the Dead event, an American Independence Day event, a May Day event, or an event for every Saint feast day: there’s no reason to celebrate every holiday or event in the game’s universe.

Easter is specifically an xtian holiday. Notice that we celebrate Wintersday and Mad King’s Day. I think ANET is very smart to steer clear of RL religion.

I’m quite happy with the Six Gods. I’d actually be offended if xtian stuff leaked into GW2. Grenth consign such things to The Endless Mists!