Remember the blue milk in the original “Star Wars”? Or the whole blue FEAST in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”?

Well today you’ve been invited to LastDay Dinner on the planet Celesta. Don’t worry, it’s going to be delicious — and only a little bit of it will be blue!

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The Tradition of LastDay Dinner

There’s only one even remotely dry place on the beautiful watery world called Celesta. At about 13 kilometers across, The Island rises, colorful and abundant, to just over one kilometer high at its hollow peak. It is divided, very evenly, into seven radial valleys, each colloquially called a “Day”. Between each of the Days are tall cliffs that stretch all the way out into the sea; these tall, impassable ridges are “the DayWalls”.

Only six of the seven Days are inhabited: the broken and misshapen “LastDay” has always been left empty and fallow. It is said this is out of respect for the ancestors who were lost there, uncounted generations ago, but many believe that LastDay is cursed or haunted, and that it is inviting bad fortune to set foot there.

On six special occasions throughout the year, people travel around The Island by boat, from their Day to one of the other five inhabited Days, for that Day’s Festival. Each one is unique, and celebrates that Day’s local culture, customs, and products. Festivals are also when most people meet their mates, as marrying within one’s own Day is frowned on.

Now, unlike the other six Day Festivals, LastDay is always celebrated at home, with your closest friends and family. Held at the end of the fourteenth month, LastDay Dinner is an event celebrating survival and togetherness — it is about being with the people you love and who are most important to you.

LastDay Dinner is different from the food of the other Day Festivals. Yes, the main meal is eaten with many courses over nearly as many hours. However, this is the one celebration traditionally observed with no fish or seafood of any kind, including plants like seaflower or seaweed.

Wines are served with every course, usually the local Day’s vintages, and are carefully paired with each plate.

Appetizers

The meal is anticipated with a variety of herb-salted breadroot crackers and nut crackers, served with nutpastes. Like many elements of LastDay Dinner, the crackers are often formed to have seven sections, with one of those sections missing. Often, long slices of fresh vegetables are included, which can be dipped in the thinner nutpastes or other sauces. Appetizers are usually accompanied by a very light beer or light, sparkling duckberry juice, rather than with wine.

First Course

A savory kweed soup is the traditional start of the official ‘sit down’ part of the meal. Often thickened with kreem or a light nutpaste, a drizzle of colorful, flavored oil is sometimes poured outward from the center of each bowl, in seven rays. (Many consider this styling to be a bit over the top and pretentious, but many still observe the tradition.) Often this is served with tiny crackers, sometimes made from the tiny 7th wedge-shaped section of the appetizer breadroot crackers. A light white wine is considered to pair best with the traditional LastDay kweed soup.

Second Course

A favorite for many is the traditional second plate of LastDay Dinner: thick slices of kav with a rich bodder gravy. Some families traditionally add a toasted, sugary fluff on this, and others think that the sugary fluff is nearly sacrilege. (This topping tends to be the one major disagreement on how to serve LastDay kav.) Usually, a stronger white, yellow, or orange wine is served with the kav.

Third Course

Usually considered the most filling course, you’re going to love breadroot dumplings or noodles in a thick savory sauce, served with baked or lightly fried kweedballs. A spoonful of duckberry compote usually garnishes this course, along with thinly sliced, bright pink, pickled onions or radish shavings. In FirstDay and SecondDay, they more often serve potatoes, baked or mashed, in place of the noodles or dumplings, and this variation is used for variety in the other Days — though the kweedballs are the necessary component to make it a true, traditional LastDay Dinner. Pair this with a dry orange or blue wine for a real treat.

Fourth Course

The order of the fourth and fifth courses varies, but more often the fourth course is a salad of leafy colors. Reds, oranges, yellows, greens (often the tiny, tender kweed leaves), blues, and violets are arranged artistically and often presented to rounds of applause for those with a more artistic eye and the patience to arrange them. In some families, it is the tradition that the salad display is also the centerpiece and is displayed throughout the meal prior to serving it. The traditional dressing for LastDay Colors is a tart duckberry vinaigrette. When served as the fifth course, it is a common jest that parents have to say, “Eat your colors, or you don’t get dessert.”

Fifth Course

A variety of cheeses, soft and hard, are served with crusty breads. Depending on which Day it is where one is celebrating, the cheese course may be accompanied with small pours of honey or syrup. Each Day has many kinds of cheeses, but FifthDay is known for its strong, aromatic blue cheeses. Green, yellow, and red cheeses are also delicious, but are generally less… pungent. Usually a deep red or green wine goes best with the cheese course.

Sixth Course

Dessert is most often berries or berry pies. Family traditions vary: which fruit is featured, whether the crust is cracker crust, nut crust, or breadroot crust — or no crust at all. Sugary fluff is less objected to with this serving than with kav, but is still considered a bit of a controversial topping, even on LastDay dessert. A long tradition is to have honey wine with dessert, but many pair it with the same wine as the cheese course, to show how the wine pairs well but so differently between the two flavor profiles.

Spirits and Wishes

The final part of the LastDay meal is small glasses of strong, aromatic liquors. These are often strawberry, duckberry, or rayberry, but are seldom overly sweet or powerfully flavored.

An Introductory Treat to Stay Up For

Most children at six or seven years old experience their first tiny sip of alcohol after LastDay Dinner — if they made it this long into the celebration. A sweeter, lower-alcohol distillation is often saved for the younger participants, or for those with no taste for stronger, drier spirits.

The Traditional LastDay Toast

The traditional toast at this point is as follows: “We made it here, together, and we celebrate in memory of those who did not.” Many think that this toast is a general statement about remembering those who died during the previous year… without realizing its deeper, costlier meaning.