OC Winter Holidays Challenge 2022 | Day 16: Merry Solstice
OLD TRADITIONS — DARIA BREZIN in THREAD OF TWILIGHT | THE GRISHAVERSE
Daria stilled her hands, letting them hover above the half-shaped white block of wood in her lap. She looked up at David. Even bundled in his wool kefta, gloves, and fur hat, the cold air turned his nose pink.
“Nikolai wanted a centerpiece for the table tomorrow,” she answered. Her fingers skimmed the hard surface before resting lightly on it. She frowned at the look on David’s face. “It is a good idea, David. One night will not set everything back.”
“So Genya says.” David huffed a breath. “There’s still so much to be done, though, so much to repair—”
“It’s one night, David.” Genya came up beside him. Her auburn hair shone under the winter sun. “And before you say there have been days of preparation, I know that, but I also know people need this opportunity to forget about the last two years for a bit.” She slipped her gloved hand into his and smiled. Then she turned to Daria. “Is that a sleigh?”
Daria looked down at the wood. “It is.” She raised her hands, and the white surface beneath her gliding fingers began to shift. The rear half of the horse-drawn sleigh took its final form. A finely-detailed young woman in a fur hat and robes appeared in it, and a group of maidens followed behind, smiling and singing.
“I got nostalgic,” Daria continued, her lips curving upwards. “It is a pity Kolenda Night isn’t celebrated the way it used to be.”
“Oh?” David’s breath frosted in the air.
Daria looked over at the Grisha skating on the frozen lake. “It was more than simply hanging lanterns in the streets and outside houses and having a feast at the end of the day,” she said. “We would make wreaths from fir or pine, and children would have snowball fights and sing kolyadki dancing in circles. But this,” she tapped the wood she was shaping, “was the main event of the day.”
She smiled to herself, observing her work.
“Carving wood?” Genya lifted an elegant eyebrow.
Daria laughed. “Not carving wood — the maiden procession.” She gestured at the design she had fashioned on the white block. “Each year every town chose a young woman to represent the Sun. She was dressed in orange robes and drawn on a sleigh from house to house, accompanied by six others, singing kolyadki. The townspeople gave them gifts, and later those gifts would be used to help anyone in need. It was really a welcome to the longer days of the year ahead.”
“Were you ever chosen?” Genya asked.
“No,” Daria said simply. “We never stayed in one place long enough to become part of the community.”
Genya’s amber eye fixed on her. She didn’t speak. Snow began to fall, and Genya brushed a flake from Daria’s slate gray hair.
“Well, tomorrow you will wear lavender,” she said. “You are a teacher at the Little Palace now, and you should display that at our first formal function after the war.”
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