Aurora Night
The Feast of the Showing · the Coming of the Cold-Readers
“And the Star stood over the place, and the aurora filled the whole sky; and the Cold-Readers fell down and worshipped, and opened their gifts of clear ice, white salt, and silver.” — Glacial of Maren 2:9–11
Aurora Night is the feast, kept twelve nights after Firstsnow, of the showing of the infant Connor Frost to the nations — the coming of the three Cold-Readers (the star-scholars of the warm east) to Hollowfrost, following the Star beneath a sky ablaze with the aurora. It celebrates that the Savor was revealed not to the Rimefolk only but to all peoples, even the warm-born. (It also commemorates Connor’s Marking at The Frozen Falls.)
The Cold-Readers and Their Gifts
The three (named in tradition Caspar of the Salt-lands, Bal the Star-watcher, and Mirren the Silver-king) brought gifts of deep meaning:
- Clear Ice — for the King: pure, eternal, unmelting.
- White Salt — for the Keeper: that which preserves and seasons (a sign of the Savor).
- Silver — for the one who would be Whitened: the cold, pale metal of mourning and of treasure.
The Keeping of the Feast
- The Aurora-Lamps — the night is kept with great displays of colored cold-light (lanterns of green, violet, and white), imitating the aurora of the Hoarfather’s glory.
- The Star-Procession — children dressed as the Cold-Readers process to the Frosthall crèche bearing the three gifts.
- The Blessing of Salt and Ice — salt and clear ice are blessed and taken home, to “season and preserve the household” through the year.
- The Twelfth-Night Feast — the joyful close of the twelve days of Firstsnow.
Theology
Aurora Night proclaims the universality of the Cold’s keeping: the warm-born nations are drawn to the Savor (foreshadowing the mission of Vael and the Acts). The aurora — “light without heat” — is the visible glory of the Horizon breaking briefly into the world, and so the feast is also a foretaste of heaven’s light.