Gründungstag (Pacifica)

Foundation Day
Foundation Day
Official name	Alman: Gründungstag
Observed by	Gianatla
Significance	Commemorates the Foundation of the Gianlucian Kingdom in 1305
Celebrations	A Parade in the capital, a concert in Südtor and funfairs in other cities. In the evening the Gianlucian President addresses the nation via TV, radio and live-stream.
Date	1 June
Frequency	annual

Foundation Day (Alman: Gründungstag) is the national holiday of the Federal Republic of Gianatla celebrating the foundation of the Gianlucian Kingdom on 1 June 1305 by King Lukas I. Furthermore the Constitution of Gianatla has been presented to Queen Charlotte I on this day in 1954. Sometimes the day is also called King's Birthday because several kings and queens in Gianlucian history had their birthday on this date.

History

Establishment of a national day

The Gianlucian Kingdom was founded on 1 June 1305, but the establishment of a national day followed much later. In January 1546, a few months after the Bailtemmic colonies were established and let the empire grew to its largest extent, Queen Sophia passed a decree, which announced the decision to have a holiday throughout the empire commemorating the foundation of the "glorious, world-encompassing nation". Especially in the cities, neighbourhoods came together and organised what could be described as precursors of modern funfairs with fleemarket booths, cheap grilled food and small games for children. In the countryside the holiday would be focused mainly around a special church service, in which it was not unheard of to thank God for the incumbent Leader's decisions and foresight.

This concept of a national day survived even with the slow fall of the Empire, the industrialisation and slow democratisation of the country over the coming centuries. Only the role of the church decreased over the years with the rise of machinery that brought the funfairesque parts of the celebrations closer to the countryside.

Rescheduling of the national day during the dictatorship

On 2 May 1935, Meinhard Frank took power by passing a constitutional reform, which not only prohibited any other party than the Frankists and revoked the citizenship from everyone, who was not "catzyan" enough, but also rescheduled the national day from 1 June to 3 May. This day was chosen to celebrate the foundation of the "Great Gianlucian Empire" and "stress the inner strength and strong will of the Gianlucian people to be united under a strong leader, equally to the days of King Lukas I, who led his people into a glorious and victorious future, by uniting the Catz tribes and founding a strong nation against the will of natural enemies of the Gianlucian people".

The propaganda's machinery was naturally working way harder in the days directly preceding and following the national day each year. The biggest military parades of Gianlucian history and most of the big film productions of the Ministry for Propaganda have premiered on 3 May. The tradition was only ended by the total capitulation of the Gianlucian Empire, signed on X May 1954. The constitution, which founded Gianlucaland on 28 June 1954 re-established the 1 June as the official national day once more.

Debate about having multiple national days since 2011

After the incorporation of Atlantis in 2011, there were attempts by the local population and by parties like the KPHA or AVP to promote the national day of the former Kingdom of Atlantis, Poseidonna on 23 July, to become a second national day for Gianatla. At the moment it is only a holiday on state level, which in the proponents' reasoning, is unacceptable. According to them, this would show how divided Gianatla still is and how Atlantics are treated as second-class people, not receiving the due cultural respect from the incorporators. Opponents argue, nations could only have one national day and Archduke Ikaros VIII signed in the Treaty of Unity between the Atlantic and Gianlucian peoples, that he accepts the 1 June to be the national day of the federal republic. Also it is criticised, that the Atlantic national day is not secular enough, as its affiliated traditions and cultural significance are both based on the Atlantic belief system.

Another proposal is to reschedule the national day onto the foundation day of the federal republic, the 1 January. However this is not popular among the populace and high-ranking politicians, including Archduke Ikaros VIII and former King and Leader Gianluca IV. Since it would fall onto New Year's Day, it would not only reduce the number of holidays for workers, but it would also be in winter, which are not inviting for celebrations outside. Moreover the effects from celebrations on New Year's Eve - mainly a foggy view and much garbage due to fireworks, and many people potentially experiencing hangovers - would make joyous celebrations of the national day unlikely.

Celebrations

Parade

Each year there is a parade observed by the heads of state and government personally, which is organised by the ministers of domestic affairs and political education, the Bundesarmee and a number of civilian organisations. Although the army helps organising the event and soldiers will march with the parade, it cannot be described as a military parade in any way, since neither weapons nor vehicles are shown and there is also no air show by the airforce.
Between 1954 and 1998, during the reign of Queen Charlotte I, the event was taking place in Südtor on a route following the coast. In 1998 the parade was relocated to Lukasstadt by King Axel I, where the parade marched from the former parliament building around Democracy Park and ended at the parliament building again. Since 2011 the parade takes place in Atlantis each year, following a northbound route from the city's main station, where the participants pass the Königspalast and stadium of Atlantis, before arriving at the city's northernmost train station.

Funfairs

An unusual trait of the Gianlucian national day is the focus on funfairs in the week of Foundation Day. Almost all cities, the only exceptions are Atlantis and Französisch Ort, have fairs planned in this time, which shall provide a special and fun experience during the holiday especially to kids, teenagers and young adults. They are also used to promote domestic tourism to the citizens, and cultural exchange between the different regions of Gianatla. Gianlucische Bahn is making use of that by offering their cheapest ticket prices during "Foundation Week".
According to studies by the University of Tragas, this results in higher morale among the populace and a more generous money-spending behaviour during the week of the national day.

Concert of the Südtor Philharmonic Orchestra

As a cultural highlight of Foundation Day, the Südtor Philharmonic Orchestra (Alman: Philharmonie Südtor) is giving a concert in the Südtor philiharmonic hall in front of an audience of 1,850 people. Since 1973 the concert can be viewed live on BUS TV after the President's address to the nation.
The pieces of music include not only the National anthem of Gianatla and classical, famous compositions from all around the world, but also orchestral interpretations of modern music. Originally the royal family was determining, what was played by the orchestra, but since 2010 50-80% of the pieces are decided on by a public online-voting in the categories "classical music", "radio charts", "pop culture songs" (e.g. music from films, series, games) and "generations' favourites" (one song from each of these sub-categories: prior to 1980, between 1980-2008 and since 2008), conducted 4-8 weeks before the concert. In some cases the royal family demanded all songs played to be affiliated to a certain topic, e.g. in 1998, the year of King Axel's wedding, only songs about love were allowed, in 2011 the focus of the orchestra had to lay on music from Atlantis, and in 2017, during the Serevan War, Erinoran pieces of music were asked for by King and Leader Gianluca IV.

President's address to the nation

On Foundation Day at 8:15 pm, right after the daily evening news, the incumbent head of state is addressing the people of Gianatla live and directly via TV and radio. The address is also streamed live on Rollercaster. In a 15-30 minute long statement, the President typically gives information about the current state of the country, gives an outlook over potential upcoming problems and how they would like to solve them and, under normal circumstances, also apologises to every person he has failed. The address shall conjure Gianlucian unity for the following months. To achieve this goal the President only speaks from a neutral-subjective position. This means their statement does not attack or mention any party or politician, but it will still convey their personal opinion.

Since every major TV channel and radio station has to broadcast the address, the audience ratings have always been very high (~80-95%), but due to the rise of VOD-services like YouWatch, the average audience rating has dropped down to around 60%. Nowadays many people also watch the address retrospectively on the official social media channels of the government.