Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Challenge Nov/ Dec 'Not Your Usual Holiday' Challenge

Every year the holiday season comes upon us and Lois and Clark once again celebrate the traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I love these stories but, this year, I thought it might be fun to do something different.

Not Your Usual Holiday Story

Lois and Clark are forced to explore other religious beliefs during December (outside of Christianity or outside of the stereotypical US/European Christmas). Such as, they go undercover as Hassidic or orthodox Jews during Chanukah, or travel to India, or the Middle East, and get swept up in a religious activity or holiday there (or within said community within Metropolis). Also possible, they travel to the Southern Hemisphere and experience Christmas in Africa or South America.

I want something that doesn’t “feel” like Christmas. I would love the experience to give Lois insight (or a new appreciation) into her beliefs about Christmas. I will also accept a mish-mash of LnC with movie Witness (aka they go undercover in an Amish community). I want Lois to be out of her comfort zone (for some reason, I can see Clark being comfortable within almost any community or culture).

Rules:
1) No stereotypical Christmas (i.e. tree, twinkly lights, Christmas shopping, Santa, holiday music, etc). Snow is only allowed if Lois and Clark are undercover within Metropolis. If Lois and Clark celebrate Christmas in another country, it cannot feel like a stereotypical American Christmas.
2) The other cultures must be treated with respect and appreciation (i.e. Lois can hate the uncomfortable clothing, worry about the cleanliness of the water, edibility of the food, but not another culture’s religion or beliefs). This is not a opportunity to show why one set of beliefs are better than another, but an opportunity to have our characters step out of their comfort zones and learn to appreciate another culture.
3) If Lois and Clark remain in the U.S., they cannot do it as themselves, nor can they celebrate their holidays as they traditionally do (i.e. Smallville is out). The only exception to this rule is if their cultural experience takes place at a different time of year, and they reflect back upon it during Christmas (or Thanksgiving).

Since people have less time at this time of year, due to combination of holidays, school, and weather, I've combined the November and December Challenges into one. Please start post your stories mid-November through end of December (although, truthfully, I'm a total pushover and I'll accept stories at any time).

Don't forget to send your completed stories to LabRat at the Archives after you post them on the Message Boards, and give her the gift of busy GE's through-out the holiday season.

Ah, India at Christmastime. For a decidedly non-Christian country it was surprising how much Christmas lights/Santa Claus decorations you'd see. My hubby and I were there for a wedding and then stayed for another four weeks, coming home 2 days before Christmas. Admittedly, the majority of them were in VERY Europeanized areas (Goa and New Delhi in particular).

Ooh! I may pick your brain a little bit then! Were you there through the new year or just till Christmas?

I don't think the story I've been writing will exactly qualify (it revolves around the New Year's Eve(s) of Clark and Lois' lives) but I do have a scene or two in some more exotic locations (India, for one).

Krypton has to have holidays.

Oooooooooh! Love this idea!

DC, didn't you already do Kryptonian holidays in that story you did set on Krypton, Contractually Bound? <<Is that the right name? >>

Yes, I did and yes, that's the fic. But neither holiday included got as fleshed out as a holiday themed fic would call for.

You're more than welcome to pm me for my email if you want more info about it. We left India just before Christmas (we left for the trip the week after the 08 election so we saw how it was perceived by the London press (we decided to start off our trip with a week long stopover in London). We ended up going to two weddings. One of a friend of our friend's in Agra (Where the Taj Mahal is) and our friend's wedding (in a "small" town that see so few non-Indians that we apparently made the local news when we visited a craft fair that was going on there.) we went to a few other places but that was the primary reason for the visit.

For what it is worth, the most Baptist state in the world is not Georgia or Alabama, but Mizoram, in eastern India. India has a very complex religious situation, with different parts of the country having different religions in dominance. Mizoram and Nagaland are not really "Europeanized", but they were never part of mainstream Indian culture. The same thing is going on there as with the heavily Christian areas of East Malaysia on Borneo.

With all Clark's mentions of Borneo on the show, maybe that is where he should take Lois for Christmas. To take Sarawak, one of 3 states of Malaysia on Borneo, the population is 44% Christian, 30% Muslim and 14% Buddhist. It is so complex that the Wikipedia article reads "Sarawak is the only state in Malaysia where Christians form a majority", just after telling us Christians are only 44% of the population. To make things more complex, these religious groups generally correspond to ethnic groupings. I am not sure I am up to writing a good story of them traveling to Malaysia.