Finrod: 30-Day Character Study - Study Days by cuarthol

26. Happy Holidays.

Happy Holidays. What special days does your character observe? Research or invent the customs of a holiday your character loves to celebrate.

I am really stretching the 'happy' here to the breaking point... 

Around the time of winter solstice, the Noldor in exile observed a custom of bringing small trees into their homes and decorating them in silver and gold.  Candles were lit all around, and the Mingling of the Two Trees is recalled in a mingling of joy and sorrow, a reminder of why they had come and yet a hope for the return of the sun and a relief from the shortened days.

Finrod had forms of the two trees sculpted into the main hall of Nargothrond, wrought in silver and gold and filling the walls on which they were carved.  On solstice midnight, all other lights in Nargothrond were put out (within reason) and only the lights of the trees shone, filling the darkness with brilliance.

Over the centuries, various songs and poems were created and recited or sung on that night.  It is a subdued affair, but it is one of Finrod’s favorite observances.  He feels in it not only the memory of Valinor but the steadfast faith that the Valar had not utterly forsaken them. 

He used to always ask his brothers to come join him, but in later years they had more and more often stayed in the north.  Then the year came when, like the trees, darkness overtook and destroyed them.  Their lights went out, and one, at least, would never again shine until the very ending of the world.

From that time, Finrod forbade the trees to be lit in the hall (though he did not forbid others from observing it privately) and he felt himself descending further into darkness with each passing year that they were gone.  The time of the Mingling became rather a time of mourning, his grief magnified.

In his final years, solstice became a time when he, Orodreth, and Finduilas would recall their loved ones lost.