Only 3 weeks of Wintersday?

[Elshrimpo.8406]

So why did we get 5 weeks of Halloween, and we're only getting 3 weeks of Winterday? I'm actually upset. I adore wintersday the most! Best festival of them all imo. (Except the metal festival in Grothmar Valley ofcourse)

[Danikat.8537]

The Wiki says it will start on the 14th December and end on the 4th January, I'm not sure where that comes from but if it's accurate I might get just 4 days for Wintersday this year, depending on how my other plans work out.

I'm not sure why Halloween was longer and Wintersday is shorter but I suspect they schedule the festivals around other stuff they've got going on. It's not the first time Wintersday has been relatively short; in 2017 and 2018 it ended on the 2nd and in 2020 it ended on the 5th but I think this is the first time Halloween has been 5 weeks long. I assume it means there's something else happening in January and they didn't want it to overlap, or possibly wanted a gap between the two, but I'm not sure what that would be.

The other idea I had, which seems very unlikely, is that it's part of a very long, slow build up to a storyline. In both GW1 and GW2 we've heard that Halloween is the one time of the year Mad King Thorn can visit Tyria in a limited fasion. Ever since GW1 the Lunatic Court have been trying to find a way to extend his stay or break him out completely and they've gotten to the point where he can appear periodically throughout the festival instead of for 1 day. Now we've got a very long Halloween. Maybe they're very slowly building up to a story where he breaks out permanently (or tries to) and we have to stop him.

[Farohna.6247]

Assuming it was longer to accommodate people having enough time to do Mad King and Return to events...and other weekly events like WvW.  Most of that should be wrapped up by Wintersday, and possibly any upcoming January events that we don't know about yet.  Or maybe someone just really really liked candy corn.  I'd be happy for five weeks of Wintersday as well ❤️ ☃️

[ksgarvin.6132]

That's probably it. They've been releasing stories on top of the festival stuff, and it's been a scramble to try and get stuff done. But 5 weeks is pretty long. During the last week the labyrinth was almost deserted on some maps.

[DKRathalos.9625]

Normally Halloween also 3 weeks, I think only this year they doing special 5 weeks halloween.

[Randulf.7614]

Festivals always fit round other schedules, so are dictated by things we often don’t see until later or by other planned events going on at the same time. Halloween was an anomaly this year. I love Wintersday too, but 3 weeks is standard and all that is needed. We’ve got more betas, Lunar New Year and any other bonus week events to squeeze in before the Feb release yet. And people will be catching up with LS right up to release.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 11/9/2021 at 9:37 PM, Danikat.8537 said:

Maybe they're very slowly building up to a story where he breaks out permanently (or tries to) and we have to stop him.

While any story not involving Elder Dragons is welcomed by me, I think you might be reading too much into it.

[Bristingr.5034]

Just start Wintersday on Nov. 30th and have it end on December 28th.

[Ashantara.8731]

10 hours ago, Bristingr.5034 said:

Just start Wintersday on Nov. 30th and have it end on December 28th.

Yes, I'd love it to run 4 weeks and for it to start sooner, too. 👍