Headcanon Showerthought: "Friendship Festivals" · 4:02am Feb 3rd, 2023
(Inspired by one of the stories in the MLP comics, where Twilight visits a tortoise race held in the name of Friendship)
Historically, countries sealed treaties and alliances with marriages. However, Princess Celestia challenged that model, because she never took a spouse, let alone a lover, and bore no children (at least publicly; her life behind closed doors remains a subject of debate). Instead, Celestia forged a number of Pacts of Friendship--mutual pledges of cooperation and support, cemented by public exchange of tribute and swearing of oaths, often accompanied by celebratory feasts or games. These pacts needed to be renewed often, occasionally as often as once a year, which served multiple purposes: for one, Celestia's presence helped remind everyone who they were dealing with. These frequent renewals also made it easy to keep the continuity between successive leaders, who had a nasty habit of dying.
As time marched on, the Friendship Pacts became less of "treaty" and more "facts of life," especially given Celestia's increasing prestige (it would be foolishness to challenge the Goddess of the Sun, after all!). The annual festivals centered around renewing the Pacts gradually became more important than the Pacts themselves. This has granted Equestria a somewhat strange tradition of a number of holidays that celebrate the concept of Friendship itself. Celestia doesn't particularly mind the change, especially given the unity that comes from such frequent reminders of the bonds between ponies.
Twilight knows the history of these friendship festivals, at least in broad strokes, but seems to have fallen into the trap of focusing more on the celebrations than on the treaties. The Festival of Friendship (from the movie) only solidified this focus on the party side of things. Celestia felt no need to correct her.
Does this mean each region would have different festival dates?
Pinkie probably holds Celestia in awe not because of the whole "raising the sun" thing, but because she unified Equestria through the power of parties.
solid, love it :)
There is canon for this! The dragons become jealous that the yaks gave honorary yak title to pinkie
IMO it's one of the weaker comics, but this and yours are great ideas to run with