Life Day/Legends

"This holiday is yours but, we all share with you the hope that this day brings us closer to freedom, and to harmony, and to peace. No matter how different we appear, we're all the same in our struggle against the powers of evil and darkness. I hope that this day will always be a day of joy in which we can reconfirm our dedication and our courage. And more than anything else, our love for one another. This is the promise of the Tree of Life."

- Princess Leia Organa

Life Day was the Wookiee holiday celebrated by the inhabitants of Kashyyyk every three years. It was a celebration of the planet's diverse ecosystem and the many forms of life it encompassed. It also was a time to remember family members who had died, and the young ones who continued to bring new life to a family. Life Day was an almost sacred holiday, and many Wookiees returned to Kashyyyk in order to celebrate it. Life Day was held once every three local years for many generations, but during the Galactic Civil War, its importance to the Wookiees became more pronounced. Wookiees were spread across the galaxy, either because they had been enslaved by the Galactic Empire or for personal reasons, and they began celebrating Life Day each year as a way to remain in touch with their history. Over time, the holiday found its way into various other cultures.

Customs
Though it is not clear if some Life Day traditions were originally created by the Wookiees themselves or expanded upon by citizens of the greater galaxy, by 1 ABY the celebration of Life Day had become fairly consistent in major population centers like Theed on Naboo, Coronet on Corellia, and even Kachirho on Kashyyyk.

Activities for Life Day included trimming a tree, launching fireworks, consuming treats like Wookiee-ookiees and Hoth chocolate, and listening to festive music.

Music
Traditional Life Day songs included:
 * Christmas Green
 * Here We Come A-Wassailing
 * Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
 * Joyful and Triumphant
 * Swingalong Santa

In 1 ABY, these were performed in several locations by the Max Rebo Band on Life Day.

Behind the scenes
Wookiee Life Day made its first appearance in the 1978 television film The Star Wars Holiday Special. In the special, Chewbacca's wife Mallatobuck prepares a feast of Bantha rump, gifts are exchanged between acquaintances, candles are burned ritualistically, and Wookiees don red robes and join into groups to observe the day. Singing is also involved. 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, serve as a frame story, and lend a bit of topical relevance to the material, which would otherwise be completely inappropriate for a television holiday special.

In the Holiday Special, the Wookiees of Chewbacca's family are depicted as departing their Kashyyyk home, walking across a galaxy of stars, and arriving at the Tree of Life (note that, although the characters appear, Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 have remained on Yavin 4 throughout the Special). This scene should likely be interpreted as abstract or non-canonical. Alternately, if the scene is a literal, factual occurrence, it is possible that either (a.) the Life Day candles are foci of some bizarre and as-yet uncatalogued Force phenomenon, or (b.) the candles contain hallucinogenic drugs the burning of which cause Wookiees to imagine themselves transported across the Galaxy. The first explanation is unlikely, since such devices would almost certainly be reserved for military applications before holiday celebrations; besides which, the occupation of Kashyyyk would have ensured the destruction of all local Force artifacts per general Imperial policy. The second explanation seems more plausible, as it explains both the seeming teleportation and Princess Leia's singing. In addition, religio-pharmacological application of natural hallucinogens is common in primitive cultures.

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.

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 creators of the game first officially recognized the holiday as an in-game holiday in December 2003. The official site for Star Wars: Galaxies devotes an entire page to explaining this unique feature of the game. Gifts are given to players, one to keep, and another to give to a friend.

The term was mentioned again in Starfighters of Adumar, by Wedge Antilles. In that context, it was not capitalized, and the term seemed to be implied as a Star Wars-ism for birthday.

Life day is usually regarded as the Star Wars equivalent of Christmas in the real world, but might have been just generalized into "Life Day", so that it wouldn't be race or religion-specific.

In the 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando, when the player is fighting for Kashyyyk, one of the delta squad will occasionally yell out "Yee-haw! Life debts for all of us!". However, some fans initially thought that the squad was saying "Yee-haw! Life Days for all of us!".

Pop culture references

 * Life Day was mentioned in The Venture Bros. episode "A Very Venture Christmas".


 * In Issue #121 of ToyFare magazine, the "Twisted Toyfare Theater" section is devoted exclusively to The Star Wars Holiday Special, with Lumpy questioning Chewbacca about Life Day, and Chewbacca responding that he should look it up on Wookieepedia.

Appearances

 * Rebel Dawn
 * The Star Wars Holiday Special
 * The Wookiee Storybook
 * The Kashyyyk Depths
 * Star Wars: Galaxies
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
 * The Return of Tag & Bink: Special Edition
 * X-wing: Starfighters of Adumar