The Reaping

The Reaping for the 74th Hunger Games at District 12

"*Usually when a work-cancelling holiday occurs in District 9, it's accompanied by joy and laughter. The children run across the fields of grain playing with their friends. Parents sit with their friends catching up on their latest financial problems. But not on reaping day. Never on reaping day.*"
―Barley Mayes discussing the reapingThe **reaping** was an annual event that took place in every district before each Hunger Games, when the tributes of the upcoming Games were chosen. It served as the opening event in the week immediately prior to the start of the Games.

## History

After the first rebellion in which every district was defeated by the Capitol, the Treaty of Treason was signed into law. Among the treaty's many provisions was the implementation of the Hunger Games. The reaping was developed as a means of selecting the tributes to participate in the Hunger Games through a lottery, although the initial implementation of the event gradually evolved into its modern form over the years.

For the first twenty-four editions of the Games, the mayor of each district was the one responsible for the selection of the tributes instead of an escort sent from the Capitol. There were no volunteers until Spall of District 2 volunteered for the 6th Hunger Games, which he won.

## Process

The reaping was the opening event for the Hunger Games, held in the summer during the early afternoon, around 1:00 pm in the case of District 12. As Panem spanned the breadth of North America, the reapings were not held at the same time for each district due to differing time zones. As such, the reaping proceeded from the east coast to the west coast.

The reaping was a mandatory event for the entire district population, especially so for those still of reaping age. Failure to report to the reaping incurred severe penalties such as imprisonment. The only exemption given for attendance was if an individual is severely ill or close to death. Government officials made rounds through the district to confirm if this was the case on the evening of the day before the reaping would be held. In District 9 and District 11, not attending the reaping, even if unintentional, is punishable by death.

As the time for the reaping approaches, the district population was to assemble in the plaza outside of the Justice Building. In all districts excluding District 7 and District 6, this was in the center of the town. The plaza was decorated with banners of Panem with cameras crews set up around the perimeter of the plaza to both capture the event as well as the reaction of the crowd and selected tributes. It was televised live for both the citizens of the Capitol and the districts.

As district citizens entered the plaza, they were required to register with government officials. Citizens provided a blood sample to confirm their identity, which many districts used to form a census of underage citizens. The Peacekeepers confirmed that all required citizens were in attendance. Each age group of reaping eligible children was contained in roped-off areas in the town square separated on each side by gender, with the oldest eligible children in the front and the youngest in the back. Adults and family members of the potential tributes were placed along the perimeter, while late-arriving citizens were herded to the streets adjacent to the plaza to watch the reapings live on large screens.

On the stage in the front of the Justice Building, district government officials such as the mayor, the district escort, and any previous Hunger Games victors assembled there. At 2:00 pm, the mayor stepped forward and recited the history of the founding of Panem, the First Rebellion, the implementation and rules for the Hunger Games, and the spoils and riches that come from victory in it. Following this, the mayor read off a list of the district's previous Hunger Games victors and in Career districts, it was customary for a select few of those victors to give a short speech. Once this was done, the mayor handed the proceedings over to the district escort, who officially opened the reaping.

After a brief number of comments, the escort proceeded to select a name at random from the reaping bowls. Many citizens of the Capitol, as well as those from the district, often placed bets on who would be chosen. Different districts had different customs on which name is chosen first. In Districts 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, and 12, the female tribute was reaped first. In Districts 1, 4, 6, and 9, the male tribute was reaped first. In District 7, the ballots were all put in one big bowl and if two names of the same gender were pulled in a row, the escort simply ignored the second one and pulled another name. Once an entry slip was selected, the tribute's full name was announced by the escort, and the individual selected is to approach the stage where they are presented to the district, with the same process repeated for the other gender. Following selection, another reaping eligible child could choose to volunteer in the appropriate tribute's place. If nobody volunteered, as was most common in the outlying districts, the two tributes were formally announced as the district's representation in that year's Hunger Games.

Following their selection, the mayor of the district recited the Treaty of Treason. After this, the tributes were taken into custody and brought into the Justice Building to an extravagant room within, which was guarded by Peacekeepers to prevent the tribute from escaping participation. There, the tributes were allotted one hour to meet with family, friends, and other individuals to say their goodbyes and make their final arrangements (excluding the 75th Hunger Games). Each visitor or group of visitors had an unspecified allotment of time with the selected tribute through the hour before they were escorted out by Peacekeepers. Once the hour is elapsed, the tributes were taken by Peacekeepers to a waiting car outside which transported them and their district partner to the district train station. There, they boarded a train, alongside their escort and eventual mentor, bound for the Capitol.

## Eligibility and Tesserae

"*The Capitol has this system where all eligible children for the Hunger Games can take a meager year's supply of grain and oil, called tesserae, for one individual in exchange for putting their name in the reaping ball one more time. The entries are cumulative, so by the time he was fifteen my father had his name in the ball four times for each of his four family members, plus four as the minimum each fifteen-year-old has to submit. He had to take out tesserae every year for his whole family because they grew up in crippling poverty.*"
―Barley Mayes on tesserae
Each district's escort had the duty of selecting the name of one male and one female tribute from two separate glass balls, both containing all entries of every eligible male and female potential tribute respectively of the district. Those picked were then the official tributes for the upcoming Games. Only children aged 12-18 were eligible to be reaped. When a child turned 19, they were officially ineligible to participate in the reaping, although a tribute who turned 19 after the reaping would still be eligible for the Games but would be considered 18. Similarly, past victors of the Hunger Games, even if they were still of reaping age, were exempt from further reapings.

Once of age at twelve years old, a potential tribute's name was entered into the reaping one time. The entries were cumulative with each passing year, so when a possible tribute was thirteen, their name was added one more time and again at fourteen and so on. This continued until age eighteen, when a potential tribute's name was entered seven times.

For the residents of the various districts, any child between the ages of 12 through 18 could apply for tesserae. This supplied them with a year's supply of grain and oil. They could choose to do this for each of their family members as well. However, each tessera they signed up for put another slip with their name in the reaping ball, which was also cumulative for each year they applied for tesserae. As such, sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen had her name put in the glass ball twenty times, having applied for herself as well as her sister and mother for five years since the age of 12. Similarly, Gale Hawthorne, who had five family members including himself, did the same for seven years and thus had his name put in the glass ball forty-two times. The amount of tesserae taken was larger in Panem's poorer districts, such as District 12 and 11, but much rarer in the more affluent districts of 1, 2, and 4.

## Volunteering

If someone chose to, another reaping age child could elect to volunteer to take the place of a reaped tribute. Volunteering was made by vocal acclamation, typically to the effect of "I volunteer as tribute." The act of volunteering was rare in most of the districts, largely due to the prevailing view of being selected to participate in the Hunger Games seen as a death sentence, with Effie remarking in Katniss Everdeen's case that she was allegedly District 12's first volunteer in memory. Reasons to volunteer varied from person to person, such as to protect and/or save the reaped tribute from participation as was the case for Katniss when she volunteered for her sister, Primrose Everdeen, after she was reaped for the 74th Hunger Games.

Volunteering, however, was a far more common occurrence in the "Career" districts of 1, 2, and 4, where participation in the Hunger Games was viewed as a great honor. In these districts, many children attended specialized training academies (such as the Hunger Games Training School in District 4) where they were instructed in various forms of combat and survival in preparation for the Games. Eventually, typically towards the end of their eligibility around the age of 17–18, they volunteered to participate in the Hunger Games with great enthusiasm. Not every Career district had an eligible boy and girl every year, so occasionally a tribute would get reaped naturally and sent to participate in the Games, as was the case with Caspian Hadala (though Caspian had planned to volunteer three years later).

Each slot could only be volunteered for once each year. So, if the boy from a district was reaped, and then a boy from the same district volunteered in his place, another volunteer could not volunteer in the volunteer's place.

## Quarter Quells

Every 25 years, the tributes were chosen in an alternate manner as part of a special, quarter-century iteration of the Hunger Games known as the Quarter Quell. These special Hunger Games were held to keep the memory for holding the Games fresh with the populace, whilst adding a notable twist to the regular proceeding of the Games related to the actions of the rebels during the First Rebellion. The instructions for the specific year of the Quell were specified inside a special envelope read by the president ahead of the reaping for these particular Hunger Games. The following were the special rules for the reaping of each held Quarter Quell:

* For the 25th Hunger Games, the First Quarter Quell, the districts voted on the tributes who were to be reaped.
* For the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell, twice the amount of tributes, two males and two females, were reaped for the Games.
* For the 75th Hunger Games, the Third Quarter Quell, the tributes were reaped from the existing pool of victors. This was changed from the initial plan of having tributes reaped from ages 10-15 so that Katniss Everdeen would be forced into an arena again, as she was the only surviving female victor from District 12.
* There were envelopes for up to the 50th Quarter Quell, but none of those Games came to be as the Games were abolished after the Second Rebellion