Nordlings celebrate kekri, their end of harvest festival, as their new year. This is based on the ancient Finnish year-end festival of the same name, also known as keyri or köyri in some regions. The celebration has no fixed time – it takes place sometime between September and November, depending on when harvest work comes to an end, and can vary from place to place or even house to house.
Kekri tradition is being revived in Finland and is nowadays celebrated on the first weekend of November, usually landing a week after Halloween. The “lady of pains and burdens” in this comic is a reference to the Finnish deity Kivutar, goddess of pain, but my depiction of her role in Theodius’s world is entirely made up.