[Benjamin Meir]

We need a list of national holidays so I can populate our forum calendar with a little something.

Ideas?

[Steven Dore]

A few suggestions to start with:

January 4, Independence Day, naturally.  
February 22 is the day Port St. Andre was founded 6 years ago. Known as St. Andre Day, Foundation Day, etc.
September 13, the date of transfer from Natopia to Haifa.

[Benjamin Meir]

Does St. Andre, the Bovic saint, have a feast day?

[Steven Dore]

Let's make it July 2nd. (His namesake's birthday seems appropriate)

[Alessandro Vercotti]

We could include Christmas or Easter, as I would like to have a branch of Christianity here. Though that may be dependent on how the theology pans out.

[Benjamin Meir]

Hm, we can add them and give them a different name, make it local, but the equivalent of its Christian counterpart.

[Alessandro Vercotti]

So, St. Andre is a Bovic saint? How does that work?

Also, I wonder if it might be fitting to name the nation Andrino, and have Port St. Andre as the capital? Might make the state sound a bit more grand.

[Benjamin Meir]

"The Most Serene Andrino Republic"? "Andrino" is supposed to be the demonym for people from St. Andre.

[Alessandro Vercotti]

Of course, I also thought St. Andre was a Christian saint, as opposed to Bovic (I am not familiar with its tenets). But, I would think it would come out as the "Most Serene Republic of Andrino," with the adjective being "Andrinese." The idea would be to stay away from the name of a single person as the name of the nation, while the city of Port St. Andre would continue the legacy of the man; in this way, we could have the state seem more secular and above ethnicity and still maintaining the core history of the region.

[Steven Dore]

Since there are Christians on Micras already I see no reason to rename Christmas and Easter, to do so would be biased. And remember, the Bovic population of this Republic is very, very small. Only one congregation. So I assume any such celebration of St. Andre's feast day would be treated like St. George's Day, a wider secular population adopting a quaint local custom and taking it beyond any sort of religious context.

---

And I have no strong opinion either way on the name, I don't think anyone considers this republic to be anything but secular and multi-ethnic so I personally think it is a non-issue.