Katja’s birthday According to the ledgers left behind by her parents, Katja’s birthday was just a few days after Jul. She made the cut for her birthday to be celebrated during the festival itself. Due to the circumstances in which she had grown up and her tendency to follow them to places she shouldn’t, this was going to be Katja’s first proper festival. The day before the festival, Sigrun asked him a question that she somehow hadn’t considered before despite the fact that they had both been Katja’s parents for close to a year:
-Hey, Mikkel, you know stuff, so maybe to can solve a mystery for me. Do you have any idea why children born up to six days after Jul get to be “Jul children”, but the acceptable “before” date is about half that?
-This one is actually quite easy. Old-world astronomers estimated that the actual solstice could be up to a couple days before the usual celebration. As for the “after” cut-off, I assume you remember that place where we got rid of the ghosts, according to Reynir. That religion had a widespread festival that took place the 25th of December, and sometimes required to have the following day to be taken off, as well. In many places, it got either combined with or outright replaced winter solstice celebrations. According to archives, when Jul became the sole winter solstice festival again and was moved up a few days, people in charge decided that the transition would be eased if people who had been used to the Old World festival also being their birthday party were allowed to celebrate it during Jul.
-25th of December, eh? How did that god not have this happen on purpose?
Both Sigrun and Reynir were insistent that Katja was meant to have a role in regards to that religion as it was. If neither of them asked about it specifically or found out on their own, Mikkel was going to keep what the 25th of December festival was meant celebrate from them for as long as his could. Even if they were right, something that was doubting less and less, having a guardian who didn’t make as much of a big deal of it as everyone else around her may make a great difference for the sort of childhood Katja would end up having. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. It turned out be the mailman:
-A couple packages for you just came out of quarantine. There is another that will be out by tomorrow’s mail delivery, as well.
xxxx
One of the packages was from Reynir. He was sending over copies of all the books about that religion he could find in Iceland, and had gotten his hand on the latest one close enough to Jul to send it along with the small stuffed sheep that was his actual gift. If books on the subject produced in Denmark and Sweden had a “gods don’t actually exist anyway, but they make an interesting study subject” bias to them, the bias of those from Iceland could be summed up as “that god does exist, but it’s in everyone’s best interest to not worship them”. However, considering how thorough Iceland’s efforts to ban that god’s worship had been during the first few decades after the initial Rash outbreak, any surviving information was good to have. Besides, if any of the things denounced in those books were true, they would be clearly stated and explained mistakes from the past that Katja would later know to avoid if her supposed part in rebuilding that religion from the ground up ever came to be. The toy, meanwhile, was identical to one Katja had played with during her stay in Iceland, hadn’t been allowed to take with her upon leaving for various reasons, but hadn’t been reluctant enough to part with to change anyone’s mind. Emil had sent a small bag of expensive sweets that a bakery in Mora had started to produce within the last few months, and that were much appreciated by his younger cousins. A second item was found in the package from Emil: a cat figurine that had been sculpted in the most light-colored wood that one could find, painted with markings the same color as Katja’s hair. Its style was promptly recognized. It was very like those two to announce such news by sending presents together out of the blue. On Jul itself, a package from Finland was delivered. If Lalli’s present was accompanying Emil’s, that left only one person who knew Katja who could have sent it. The present itself, however, was something someone else entirely would have chosen: a “mechanics for beginners” book.
