Avatar Day festival


 * This article is about the holiday. For the episode, see Avatar Day.

Avatar Day was originally a day to commemorate the derision of the Avatar in Chin Village after the death of its patron, Chin the Great. The people of Chin Village believed Avatar Kyoshi murdered their leader, thus resenting the Avatar, a disdain which persisted until the day Aang visited the town. When he saved the village from a Rough Rhino invasion, the Avatar was forgiven. From that day forward Avatar Day was celebrated in the name of Aang in order to remember his actions in saving the village.

Founding
In the era of Avatar Kyoshi, Chin the Great was invading all corners of the Earth Kingdom, taking village by village. He remained unopposed until Avatar Kyoshi stood in his way at the neck of the peninsula where she lived. Chin Village would later be founded on that location. It was there that Kyoshi warned Chin that she would not sit passively while he took their home, but he persisted anyway and challenged her. Avatar Kyoshi entered the Avatar State, effectively separating Kyoshi peninsula from the mainland. As the ground shook from the earthquake she created, the headland Chin was standing on collapsed. Too stubborn to get out of the way, Chin fell into the sea below, where he drowned.

After this day, the people of Chin Village decided to honor their leader, and celebrate their hatred of the Avatar and its incarnations, in the form of a festival, so named Avatar Day.

Celebration
The Avatar Day festival is a lot like a parade with large paper floats, vendors selling deep-fried foods, and people celebrating. The highlight of the celebration is when giant paper effigies of previous Avatars are paraded down the village and then lit on fire.

Change of Commemoration
370 years of celebrating like this had to pass before Avatar Day changed. After Avatar Aang and his companions were ambushed by the Rough Rhinos, they ended up not far from Chin Village. After learning about the celebration, the group decided to attend, not realizing its true purpose. When they discovered that the celebration was in fact a festival to shun the Avatar, Aang defended his previous incarnations. He was shocked to hear that Avatar Kyoshi had killed Chin the Great.

In order to defend the honor of the Avatar, Aang allowed the village to arrest him, and put him on trial. In the meantime, Sokka and Katara traveled to Kyoshi Island to learn more about Avatar Kyoshi, in order to find evidence of the Avatar's innocence. Aang failed to convince the villagers of his innocence during his testimony. As a last resort, Aang dressed up as Kyoshi in the hope that this would bring forth Kyoshi's spirit. Through the use of the Avatar State, Aang was able to serve as a vessel for Avatar Kyoshi.



Kyoshi gave her testimony to the crime, pleading guilty. She however explained that Chin's death was of his own doing, and not directly the Avatar's fault. Nevertheless, Aang was sentenced to be boiled in oil. But before the sentence could be carried out, the Rough Rhinos invaded the village, claimed it for the Fire Lord, and began to destroy it. The mayor pleaded with Aang to save them, but he refused, saying he was scheduled to be boiled in oil. Thus, the mayor changed Aang's punishment to community service. Aang served the community by defeating the Rough Rhinos and saving the village from total destruction.

To commemorate the latest actions of the Avatar, a new Avatar Day was declared in honor of Avatar Aang, who saved them from the Rough Rhino Invasion.

The celebration of Avatar Day is limited to Chin Village, and only people there celebrate this event.

Trivia

 * The main dish served on this holiday was originally deep-fried dough, but after Aang defeated the Rough Rhinos, the main dish changed to Aang-shaped, unfried dough, an allusion to how the Avatar was not boiled in oil. However, made evident by the expressions of Aang, Sokka, and Katara, not everyone was won over by this change of menu.