On the day of the winter solstice, Teto and I made our way to the forest to participate in the Stargazing Festival. We arrived there at noon.
“So this is the new venue,” I commented as I looked around.
“There are already so many people!” Teto noted.
The main events wouldn’t start before the evening, but the town hosting the festival was already bustling with activity.
“Look, they’re giving out pamphlets,” I said, grabbing one of them. “It looks like there are a lot of family-friendly activities during the day, probably because families usually come and leave early,” I reasoned.
The town in which the Stargazing Festival was held was on the border of the forest, smack-dab on the trade route between Ischea and Gald. Four hundred years ago, when the forest started expanding, a large lake was formed, and this town was built on its shores. If you looked north, you could see the World Trees on the other side of the lake, making this town a popular tourist destination all year round. On the day of the Stargazing Festival, the people of the forest would set up special means of transportation so that anyone in the surrounding towns could take a day trip to participate in the festival.
“Lady Witch, Teto wants to eat this!” Teto exclaimed, pointing at a food stall.
“Let’s get some food and eat it while we do a little sightseeing, shall we?”
The two of us strolled through the town, stopping at various food stalls to sample the snacks and dishes that caught our eye. Most activities at this time of day were geared towards families and children, with circus acts, outdoor plays, and playground facilities. Teto and I would occasionally stop to watch a play or try a particularly interesting-looking attraction. It reminded me a bit of the amusement parks from my previous life.
Soon we found ourselves at a shop that sold items that seemed exclusive to the festival.
“What are these things?” I mumbled to myself, examining the shelves.
“Everything looks really interesting,” Teto said.
“Hey, welcome to—” the shop clerk—a demon—was about to greet us, but the second his eyes landed on Teto and me, his jaw hit the floor. He must’ve recognized us. I brought a finger to my lips to tell him to keep our identities hush-hush, and he nodded so vigorously I got scared his head would pop off.
“Um... May I ask what brings you to my humble shop, Lady Witch, Lady Teto?” he asked in a hushed voice.
“It looked interesting,” I replied with an awkward smile.
“Can you tell us about what you’re selling?” Teto piped up.
“O-Of course!” the man replied, beaming, clearly proud to show off his wares to us. “I sell items that can be used during the night event.”
“The night event? If I remember correctly, it’s a parade, right?” I said.
From what I had read, women dressed in priestesses’ garb would be performing a dance that looked like my purifying dance on one of the floats.
“Exactly!” the demon nodded excitedly, grabbing two baton-looking things and handing them to us. “These are called ‘light sticks.’ You use them to cheer for the performers in the parade. You can get them for free, so please take them with you!”
Apparently, these would light up if you poured some mana into them. As for the people who didn’t know how to let out their own mana, they could just hold small magic stones in their hands and the sticks would glow.
“This looks like so much fun!” Teto chirped.
“I don’t know why, but these give me a feeling of déjà vu...” I muttered, searching my memories for something similar.
Oh, right; I once stumbled across luminous moss in a cave, didn’t I? If I remember correctly, it also reacted to mana, so perhaps they used something similar to paint these sticks to make them glow in the dark, I surmised.
“And here you have evil-repelling bells,” the shop clerk continued to introduce his wares. “I highly recommend getting one! Ah, but then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be recommending those to you, Lady Witch. After all, you’re the one who invented them,” the man said with an awkward laugh.
Teto carefully examined the bells, gently poking them and making them emit a soft jingling sound.
“I didn’t invent evil-repelling bells,” I said.
“Huh? Really?”
“Yes. I used a kakkhara when I performed the first purifying dance,” I explained. “The metal hoops knocking into each other make a sound that’s a bit similar to that of a bell, but I’m not the one who came up with the idea of putting anti-evil charms on bells.”
People in the forest used to put evil-repelling charms on all sorts of items that made sound, but bells quickly became the most popular choice due to their cuteness. They started putting them on their doors around the winter solstice like one would a Christmas wreath. Later down the line, some people moved out of the forest and the custom of putting evil-repelling bells on one’s door in winter spread in the outside world as well, to the point where it became a staple of the Winter Solstice Festival.
As a side note, two hundred years ago, people came up with a new tradition: ringing the bells once for each year of one’s life to pray for good health in the new year. I thought, amused, that it seemed a bit like a mash-up of the Buddhist event Joya-no-Kane, where priests would ring a bell one hundred and eight times on New Year’s Eve to ward off bad luck, and Setsubun, a ritual where people would throw roasted soybeans out of the front door as a metaphor for driving evil spirits out of their home.