Crissmus

One of the primary rules of the PPB when the ships were being built to colonise Culmai, was that nobody with retained religious beliefs would be allowed to join the colonial endeavour. As much as the objections to actual pollutants despoiling the Earth, religion was seen as a mental pollutant that should not spread into the wider Universe. The measures to protect against this were exhaustive, including multiple interviews under lie-detectors, psychological assessments, and background checks. The enforcement was so stringent that when Solomon Maier - one of the PPBs founders whose name, along with that of Hardy Cullum, forms half of the name of the world of Culmai, the target world of the colonists - found faith, he made the heart-breaking decision that he would stay at home on Earth.

Along the way of the 7 year journey, some colonists would secretly celebrate Christmas, which was at this point more a celebration of commercialism and gift giving than a Christian celebration. Those who were found out were disciplined with shorter rations and a diminution of their status aboard ship. Those caught argued that Christmas really just an appropriation of Saturnalia, a fraud dating back to the Roman Emperor Constantine who rebranded pagan festivals to ease the Roman Empire into its new status as a Christian empire, but that was deemed to be half the problem, It was a gateway drug back to religiosity and should be eliminated entirely.

Instead it was determined that the date of the launch of the Astrala, the first colony ship, should serve as a day of festivity, which was broadly successful for the rest of the journey, and in the first years of the Culmai colony.

Like many worlds, Culmai had its temperate zones, but also had a summer, and a winter. The winter solstice was not as pronounced as it was on Earth, but it was still a time of considerably longer and colder nights, and the lure of lights and collective warmth was as strong as ever in the human heart, and the anniversary of the Astrala's launch was firmly in the early summer of Culmai; cold comfort indeed.

Harder to police on a world than it was on an - albeit huge - colony ship, reports of Christmas celebrations, or at least of solstice celebrations with some recognisable iconography, were starting again.

Taking note of the failures of old-Earth puritans in eliminating Christmas, which had only increased its appeal, it was decided that rather than repeat those mistakes, they would learn from Emperor Constantine, and rebrand an existing winter festival to cement the new order.

A simple, de-Christened name of Crismuss was deemed perfectly adequate, and as a great deal of the iconography had nothing to with Christianity, and was in keeping with the environmentalist goals of the PPB, a tree was absolutely perfect to be retained as a mainstay of the holiday, although angels were nowhere to be seen among the decorations. The fantasy figure of Santa Claus/Father Christmas was simply replaced with actual parents, who would dress brightly for the day, becoming Crismuss Mother and Crismuss Father, de-mysticizing and humanising the role.

It remains one of the most enduring legacies of the early colonisers and the PPB itself. Crismuss is shorn of all religious meaning, and is simply about warmth, joy and comfort in the darkest days of the year. Even though not many worlds have perfectly matching seasons and solstices, it has continued on the same date across the Protectorate, although some worlds will have a second Crismuss for their own solstice.