Avatar Day festival


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

The Avatar Day festival was originally a local celebration held to commemorate the derision of the Avatar in Chin Village after the death of its patron, Chin the Great. The people of Chin Village were angry that Avatar Kyoshi murdered their leader and thus resented the Avatar. This disdain persisted until Aang visited the town on Avatar Day and saved the village from a Rough Rhino invasion, at which point the villagers forgave the Avatar. The purpose of the Avatar Day Festival was appropriately adjusted and from that day forward was celebrated in the name of Aang, honoring him for 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 and effectively separated Kyoshi peninsula from the mainland, creating Kyoshi Island. 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.

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 much like a parade with large paper floats; vendors selling deep-fried foods, candied plums, and sugar dumplings on a stick, with many people celebrating out in the town. The highlight of the celebration is when giant paper effigies of previous Avatars are paraded down the village and subsequently burned.

Change of commemoration
370 years of celebrating Avatar Day this way passed before the holiday 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 and served as a vessel for her spirit.



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. However, 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 festival was declared in honor of Aang.

Trivia

 * The main dish served during this festival 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.
 * The burning of the effigies of the three Avatars is similar to the burning of the effigies of the evil demon, Ravan, his brother Kumbhkarna, and son Meghnada, on the Hindu festival of Dusshera, which celebrates the triumph of good over evil.