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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#98: Origin Stories

Every year, on the fifth day of the lunisolar calendar’s fifth month (which happens to be this Monday!), the Dragon Boat Festival commences with gusto all across China. Within three days of celebration, people attend dragon boat races (as expected), eat sticky rice dumplings (zongzi), and hang aromatic plants around the house to ward off evil spirits.

The origins of the festival are obscure: some say it commemorates the death of a poetic and patriotic official who was exiled from the ancient Chu state. Others say it celebrates a filial daughter who lost her life searching for her father, who fell in the river during the organization of a boat race. While father and daughter were reunited in death, their misfortune connects to yet another alternative origin story for the festival: the fifth day of the fifth month was considered the unluckiest day of the year, and the festivities are carried out to keep this bad energy at bay.

Taking inspiration from these fascinating stories, and from their multiplicity, I present to you the prompts for this week! Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the festival itself: since the tales behind this occasion are so diverse, there’s something for everyone.

This week's prompts

Write about a family with a long-standing tradition, whose members all have conflicting origin stories for it.

Thanksgiving – 58 stories

Start your story with a character having a premonition, but no one believes them.

Dark – 147 stories

Write about someone who’s desperately trying to change their luck.

Teens – 101 stories

Set your story on (or in) a winding river.

Middle School – 122 stories

Write a story involving a character who cannot return home.

Angst – 320 stories

Stories

“Ghosts of the Past” by Amy Jayne Conley

Submitted to Contest #98

WARNING: Rape and abuse themes towards the end, read with discretion and please stay safe <3 The cool breeze lifted the hem of the starched white tablecloth, making it flutter gently against my calf. Half of me didn’t think I should be here, in a beautiful restaurant I’d wrangled for me and Tom. The night was clear and balmy, so a table on the rooftop terrace was given to us, with a spectacular view of the beach and the ships passing in the distance. My treat, seeing as I was visiting him for a couple of weeks, and seeing as I had re...

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“Smoky Memories” by Catherine Hill

Submitted to Contest #98

The empty cigarette boxes piled three high on the cafe table. He’d given a few of them away to other people at the cafe, but the rest he smoked himself. With each puff he heard his wife’s voice, “If you widow me with all these kids, I’ll kill you.” That’s why he smoked them, because they conjured her, and, maybe, if he smoked enough of them fast enough he could be with her again, and the kids. But it had been ten years and he was still fit as a fiddle. His body was surviving to spite him. When he first left America and came here, everyo...

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“The Valko Family Dinner” by Sophie Penafiel

Submitted to Contest #98

On the fifteenth of every July, the Valkos gather from glamorous ruins and wretched sewers alike to hold a pleasant family dinner. The familial gathering was less than enjoyable, yet the food was exceptional, and no one could deny that Grandmother Valko’s mystery stew was the perfect way to prepare all the unpleasant parts of the human anatomy. If there was anything the Valko family could agree upon, it was that on that July night, they feasted on delectable meals unmatched by the finest chefs in Europe, or the mediocre ones located around t...

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“The Festival of Lights” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #98

The Festival of Lights has been a tradition in my family for generations. It's a tradition that began a hundred years ago when the first lights when up during the beginning of the fall season and lasts all the way to spring. The Festival of Lights is an annual tradition in which my family lights up our house and the entire town of Cape Royal with rows upon rows of light. This year it is my turn to light up the town, but this tradition is not without controversy. My mother and half the town believes the Festival of Lights began as a way t...

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“Laughter on a Night of Misery” by Naomi Hairston

Submitted to Contest #98

By nature, humans are attracted to the forbidden. As if guided by the magical string of misery; people can’t resist anything that could be described as dark, dangerous, or taboo. We worship pain and heartbreak, basking in their shadows while sobbing and begging for more. Make a story sad enough and someone might just attempt to leap through the pages and heal the characters themselves. Don’t believe me? Well, pull up a chair and listen closely. I’ll make it a game to keep your mind from straying too far from the story. Don’t worry it...

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“Happy Thanksgiving” by Hope Rivers

Submitted to Contest #98

My family seems pretty normal, normal last name, normal first name, and normal house. Except for the fact it’s always dirty, but that's besides the point. Every year we have a tradition, like a holiday. Instead of gifts we kill one another. It might seem rather abnormal to others, but it’s not like they’d find out, right? Today is November 25th, also known as Thanksgiving. It was a typical day, with the wind swaying the trees and the sun blocked off by the grey clouds. Jill Murphy, my mother, brought out a huge plate of turkey and placed i...

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“A Contested Family Tradition” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #98

A Contested Family Tradition A Family Get-Together on June 12th “Well Barb, before grandad and grandma arrive, I think it is time to tell you about a long-standing ritual we have in this family. Although maybe I should call it a long kneeling tradition – ha ha. It is one experience that everyone in this room shares. It just wouldn’t be a complete family get-together without it. You might think that it is a little strange. But it has a good story behind it.” As Dave uttered those last words of his announcement to...

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“River Run” by David Zasloff

Submitted to Contest #98

Lucas was nine years old when he first asked about the annual visits to the riverbank. “Why do we do that?” he asked his mother. “I don't really know, honey,” she sighed. “I've heard a bunch of stories, but I can't remember them, it's been so long. I go because it makes the family happy.” She went back to preparing the picnic for the trip. “Why don't you ask Grandpa?” Grandpa was taking a nap, so Lucas went to Aunt Sophie. Sophie nibbled on her bottom lip. “Your grandfather told me that the river trip started back when he was a teenage...

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“Midsummer” by Tricia Shulist

Submitted to Contest #98

MIDSUMMER The three sisters were sitting together on the couch, a photo album open on the middle sister’s lap. Yes, an honest-to-goodness photo album with old colour and black and white photos held in place with a sheet of clear acetate. They were all smiling, and pointing, an air of nostalgia surrounding them. Or maybe it was melancholy. Their mother, Esmeralda — Esmy to to one and all — had died last solstice, and this was their first celebration without her. The three sisters still lived in their fami...

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“The Fair Of Fear” by George Davis

Submitted to Contest #98

The Fair Of Fear—George Davis I fell asleep in my dark-brown recliner. I guess I was tired, though I do not know from what. It was Saturday, and since I didn’t have to go to work. I watched TV most of the day. Something that is not conducive to good physical health. I did mow the lawn before I settled down with the television programs. It was late afternoon; the sun was still moving across the azure blue sky overshadowed by a few white, misty clouds floating lazily in the atmosphere. I hadn’t b...

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“Let Not the Fire Burn” by Bric Mitchell

Submitted to Contest #98

A clocktower chimed ten times in the distance. Thane Henley lashed a broken sword to the stump that used to be his left hand. He took a deep breath and stepped cautiously into the darkness. He slowly made his way down a road with burnt-out, wrecked cars and melted, bent streetlights littering either side. A full moon was all the light he had to make his way across the scorched landscape. The last chime of the clocktower still echoed out, never quite ending and seemed to be calling to him. As Thane made his way towards the sound he felt as th...

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“Jenny's family vacation premonition” by Glenn Etzwiler

Submitted to Contest #98

Jenny was out side working on her car when she totally spaced out she had a visual of her and her family driving across a bridge. When a cruise ship slamming head on into it which was heading out to the open ocean the bridge collapsed making cars fall into the water bellow. The captain reversed the ship but a gaping hole was in the front of the ship letting water rush in. The ship started going down by Bow as Jenny is seeing all of this play out a family member slams a car door. Jenny snaps out of it runs into the house sits o...

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“Dreams End” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #98

“I had the most incredible dream. It was one of those dreams, or whatever you wish to call it, that is so real, you find yourself questioning the genuineness of the dream itself. That ever happen to you?” He just sat there. Didn’t say a word. Just stared at the floor as if he were expecting it to disappear, or move or something. I began to become worried, as that was not like him at all. He usually is conversive, even at times when you wish he’d just shut up and be quiet. I wasn't really seeking conversatio...

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“The Light in the Sky” by Sherra Yeong

Submitted to Contest #98

A bright sky above a valley turns dark within moments. The tree leaves sway vigorously as a thunderous sound causes her to shrink deeper into the picnic mat. Alan is still running playfully around the tall tree above them, his hat flying into the wind though he did not care. "Alan, let's go home," she says, her tiny six-year-old voice barely heard by her younger brother. Another thunderous sound erupted as her eyes wandered frantically in search of him. A few seconds later, she spotted him flat on his back unmoving on the side of the...

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“Premonitions” by Kayley Dickins

Submitted to Contest #98

The casual passing comment that he had a bad feeling about this one was only half-heard. It was such a common thing to hear in these situations that it had taken on the quality of small-talk by this point, something that went in one ear and then very quickly out the other. Not one thought was to be wasted upon things that were as important to them as the weather was right now, every available thought was instead to be channelled neatly toward the topic of surviving the day. “I’m telling you, there’s something funny about this one mat...

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$50

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Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 18, 2021 EST

Won by Mary Sheehan 🏆

Title: Blessed Home

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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