Hikari no Matsuri

Hikari no Matsuri
Happiness is just a Jingle Bell (or several thousand of them) away!

Premise

Hikari no Matsuri (Japanese: "Festival of Lights") is a winter-themed, weeklong event that is held either at the end of every year or the very beginning of the following year, and is designed to be a large-scale entertainment venue filled with games, attractions, vendors, and other involvement vectors. Most everything about the festival is automated, allowing players to come and go as they see fit, and there are a variety of themes and difficulties (with appropriate rewards) from casual to heavily-vested. Unspoken secrets also await players to find and discover for themselves, as well as a small-scale storyline each year further detailing some of the returning characters' backstories and their relevance to the festival itself. 'Hikari no Matsuri' and 'Festival of Lights' are used interchangeably as direct references, and it is style heavily in the overall theme of Japanese-style festivals, with some obvious twists and differences to keep it original. The Festival of Lights typically runs for a full week, opening in the morning and running until the gates are closed at midnight, Eastern Standard Time. Players utilize a wristband while traversing and engaging with the festival and its attractions/occupants, which helps keep track of certain progressions and, in some years, depicts them as a member of a specific team for competitive games. During the time spent there, players can accumulate currency, typically in the form of different types of 'Jingle Bells,' which are then exchange for a large variety of prizes, many of which cannot be obtained anywhere else. Each year expands upon the pre-existing festival, and new attractions, characters, rewards, and other things are inclined to show up with each new instance that follows.

'Kindness and Generosity' tends to be the running theme throughout Hikari no Matsuri from year to year, with players finding themselves in more-gracious favor from various NPCs as a result of actions they take in this direction, but certain things, while limited in scope, are also available to those players who decide to be the opposite.