Friday, February 22, 2008

The Spring Thanksgiving in Cute








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As far as the romantic Thanksgiving Festivals in Harvest Moon are concerned, playing as a boy rather than a girl really does have some early advantages.

There are two Thanksgiving Festivals in FoMT/MFoMT and in HM DS/HM Cute DS. The Spring Thanksgiving is an opportunity for boys to give Chocolate Cookies to girls they fancy. The Winter Thanksgiving is the corresponding Festival where girls are given the chance to present boys they fancy with a piece of Chocolate Cake. If you are playing as a boy, you DO have an advantage in Friends of Mineral Town but not in Harvest Moon DS. In FoMT, a simple gift of chocolate would suffice and would be recognised as a Thanksgiving gift. In Harvest Moon DS, however, nothing less than Cookies or Chocolate Cookies will do.

In Spring of your first year in ANY of these games, you will not have a kitchen and therefore will not be able to bake Cookies or Chocolate Cookies. You will have access to the Supermarket and be able to buy chocolate. In Mineral Town, you can give chocolate to EVERY ONE, and individuals of either gender will be pleased on the occasion of the Thanksgiving Festival, even those like Karen who ordinarily detest chocolate.

As a boy in Harvest Moon DS, you will feel very frustrated in your first Spring, not being able to give Chocolate Cookies to ANY ONE. As a girl, it is even worse, though, because it can hit your sense of self-esteem very hard not to receive a single visit from a boy... Even though you are a newcomer, it is one of those seminal events in life that can leave a nasty scar. Girls who didn't receive Valentines at school when other girls did or who weren't invited to a Ball... and so on...

Even so, by the second Spring, you can have every bachelor at your door with a gift of Chocolate Cookies. It is a rather heady feeling to be loved by every one! It does make up somewhat for that lonely first Spring Thanksgiving when all doors were locked in the Valley and you did not see a single soul, let alone receive any visits from aspiring bachelors!

In FoMT/MFoMT and HM DS/HM Cute DS, there is a schedule for visitors on Festivals like this.

In Cute, the visits occur as follows:


Marlin arrives first at 6.00 a.m
Gustafa will be at your door at 8.00 a.m.
Rock is amazingly early at 10.00 a.m.
Carter is willing to leave his research to appear at 12.00 noon
Griffin arrives at 2.00 p.m.
Skye braves the dangers of the law enforcement community and vigilantes of the Valley to arrive at your door at 4.00 p.m.

As previously posted, Magical Girls, despite their Winter promise to reciprocate, DO NOT do so!

I am absurdly sentimental about my Harvest Moon gifts. I have a 'page' in my Refrigerator and Shelf menus devoted solely to special gifts. In the refrigerator, the Big Fish from Mukumuku now has been joined by a stack of Spring Thanksgiving Chocolate Cookies from all bachelors apart from my darling Skye. My plate of Chocolate Cookies from Skye rests in a slot of its own! In the Shelf, I have a piece of Golden Lumber from Thomas on 2 Winter next to the Diamond that I found in my sock on 25 Winter. As the years progress, the slots will fill... I never, ever use any of these special items, no matter what their commercial value may be.

4 comments:

Jadis said...

Oops, must have overlooked the namesake of his beam... maybe he froze all the women and sent all the men panicking then.

It's sweet to get cookies from the guys, though in HMDS, I didn't start giving cookies until the third year, as I was too occupied with earning money and unlocking sprites.

I still keep the brooch that Gray gave me in MFoMT, though Muffy's gift might be eaten by me when I'm really hungry... hardly happens though.

Freyashawk said...

I bet you won't ever eat Popuri's mud pies from FoMT though!

Anonymous said...

Where do you get the sock; can you just buy it from the second sprite channel? I'm not sure because I recently experienced the 25th of winter for the first time. When Thomas came, he said that I didn't have a sock, so he couldn't leave me a present.

Freyashawk said...

Morgan, this information is included in my General Guide. You must obtain the Yule Stocking from Nina on any fine day in Winter (apart from a Festival day) by giving her a ball of yarn when she has reached at least 250 FP. If Nina has died, you must obtain the Yule Stocking in an event with Galen when you have raised HIS FP to the same level. Nina will not die, however, until your child is born.