Kraith Affirmation Ceremony

Kraith Affirmation Ceremony is purely a fannish construct, originating in the hugely influential Kraith series and universe created by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and other select fans. 
It involved performances and rituals that included music, dancing ("Token" and "Motek" as described in the story, Spock's Affirmation), "liturgy," and drinking water from a common ceramic cup.
 
Lichtenberg referred to this fan ceremony as "Affirmation of the Community" from Kraith Photos as well as "The Affirmation of the Continuity." from Where Sime and Gen Meet, Creativity Happens. Where have you heard of Kraith before? 
From Lichtenberg's website: 
From Lichenberg's website: 
==As "Affirmation" Happens to Vulcans in "Kraith"==
The ceremony, as it happens in Kraith, is described in great detail in these zines.
Before Surak, leaders were men who could draw lots of people together telepathically to unite them as a group mind. Called kataytikh (pl. kataytikhe),According to Joan Verba, fan writer Joyce Yasner asserted a firm belief that this word was pronounced "katydid". this ability turned out to be genetic and they started breeding for it with arranged marriages.In Diane Duane's Spock's World, which has some influence from Kraith, the arranged marriages began as a way of breeding for "The Eye", the protective inner eyelid from the TOS episode "Operation: Annihilate". Some time later arranged marriages were also used to breed for certain telepathic traits. By Spock's time the kataytikhe's task is to perform the "Affirmation of the Continuity" in which every 51.237 standard years, a group of no fewer than 57 people are telepathically drawn together by a kataytikh in order to pass on Vulcan cultural and social values. The Kraith is the chalice from which participants drink water during the ceremony. A woman with the kataytikh gene is a sterile Daughter of Tradition (T'Pau is one of these) and her life is devoted to public service. A Vulcan who misses the Affirmation is effectively outcast.
Spock conducts his first Affirmation in the first Kraith story, Spock's Affirmation. Sarek, captured by Romulans, misses the Affirmation but is able to "trans-affirm" in a unique situation during his rescue. 
=="Affirmation" as a Fan Activity==
It is also a solemn fan activity that took place at conventions.
When like-minded fans gathered at cons, a planned "Affirmation" occurred. This sometimes involved dancing, music, and drinking out of the Kraith (a chalice/cup). 
A similar fanac was Faith Day Ceremony, another Lichtenberg construct.
===The Chalice in Action, Some Affirmation===
Image:winstontorcon.jpg| Joan Winston (L) with Jacqueline Lichtenberg (R) from a "Kraith Affirmation" at TorCon (1976). Photo by Lynda (Martindale) Rzeszutek. 
File:jbandw.jpg|Jacqueline Lichtenberg holding a Kraith which she had just been presented by a fan. In the background is Debbie Goldstein, who with Carol Lynn, edited all the volumes of Kraith Collected
File:jsalute.jpg|Jacqueline Lichtenberg holding a Kraith made by a fan and giving the Vulcan Salute
Image:kraithaffirmationceremony1977.jpg|"Following the "Kraith Affirmation" circa 1977 – Jacqueline holding "Kraith""
File:FirstAffirmationJLFranZawackyetc.jpg|Jacqueline Lichtenberg and fans at a "First Affirmation"
===The Locales of Some Fan Affirmations===
* TorCon (1976)
* Equicon, hosted in Amy Falkowitz' room from a comment in Warped Space #18 (1976)
* Star Trek America (February 1977)
* Alamo City Con (November 1977)
* Schuster Star Trek Conventions/1978 Atlanta Schuster Star Trek Convention thumbnail photos are here 
===Roddenberry Never Attended ===
Despite the constant nods to the reverence and wide-spread promotion of Kraith in many public venues, Gene Roddenberry never attended one of these ceremonies.
===The Vulcan Dance===
===A Parody===
==Fan Comments==
===1975===
===1976===
===1977===
===1978===
===1982===
==Fanworks==
===Fiction===
* The Disaffirmed by Ruth Berman, a Kraith story in which Uhura contemplates marrying a Vulcan castaway named S'darmeg. A Federation scout who crashed on a planet, S'Darmeg missed the Affirmation and is now a non-person on his home world. Printed in T-Negative #15, 1972)
* Equity by Joyce Yasner, printed in Interphase #4, 1977)
===Meta===
* For Your Affirmation... by Joyce Yasner, a satire that compares a Kraith Affirmation to a Star Trek convention, printed in Eel-Bird Banders' Bulletin #1, 1977)
===Music===
* "Music for an Affirmation" -- "inspired by Jacqueline Lichtenberg's KRAITH Series" -- is on Fanzine (Star Trek: TOS zine on audio cassette tape), 1978)
==References==
<references>
Category:Sime~Gen