Second Decade

Passing of the time and growing older

Mole people live in a world where passing of the time is merely an illusion; an arbitrary way to keep track of events on a timeline that spirals towards eternity in an endless loop of days and night, seasons passing and years that no one bothers to count anymore. So detached from the concept of time and aging, moles don’t tend to care much for celebrating their birthdays or counting years they’ve spent in this unescapable realm of existence.

However, there is a day in every mole’s life that they’ll make sure to remember. This is the day when they leave childhood behind, and enter the world of adulthood. This day isn’t specifically tied to one’s birthday, but to the finishing of primary school. Every mole enters primary school at the age of six and spends ten years there, thus finishing it in the 16th year of their life. This also marks the end of the first “decade” of the hexadecimal system moles use - or as it is commonly referred to, 1st stage of their life- making it a significant milestone in one’s life. Now young moles are ready to enter the 2nd stage of their lives. They are now old enough to start taking on more responsibilities of adult life and along with entering high school, they also start working their first jobs alongside their parents and gaining more and more independence.

Ceremonies and Traditions

As the end of the 1st stage isn’t tied to one’s birthday, it’s celebrated as one big event for all young moles finishing primary school each year. Well, as this occurs at the end of the school year many other school children and high schoolers as well like to join in.

Graduation Ceremony

This is an event that young moles would be preparing for for the entire last year of school. This is the time to study hard and take various exams to see and prove what each of them is the best at. This is something that will be important in secondary school when choosing which subjects to focus on studying, and consequently also later in life. After the series of final exams is done, it’s finally time to relax and celebrate. The last day of school starts with a ceremony where the graduation diplomas are given out. These in particular display subjects and skills the young mole excelled at during their primary school years. In this ceremony, each student is called to the stage, presented with a diploma and given an opportunity to say a few words. Usually their whole families are present for this, and after the giving out of diplomas is finished, they may stay for a short while to socialize. After the ceremonies in school are over, it’s time for everyone to go home and celebrate with their friends and families.

Parties and Gifts

These vary greatly from family to family. Some settle for a nice meal and a cake with close family, and some, especially in rich areas, like to throw grand parties planned for months in advance for their children. Since everyone is celebrating at the same time, a lot of families decide to throw a party together for all of the school friends of their children. The most important thing about this day are gifts. It is customary to give the graduates particularly fancy gifts on this day. These, of course, may vary. Rich families especially like to go all out to give their kids outrageously expensive gifts, and even the less wealthier ones make sure to give their kids something special on this day.

Offerings to Gods

Similarly to many other occasions, on this day it is tradition for young moles to bring offerings to Glitter God and Satan, as a sign of gratitude for their successful past years and to ask for good fortune in the following years.

Midsummer Break

Though this doesn’t occur on this day, it is also customary in some places for young moles, the friends in the same class, to go on a vacation together during the month of high summer. School children get this whole month off as a midsummer break. They take this as one last opportunity to truly enjoy having fun with their friends and no worries about any responsibilities. Surely they’ll have chances to do that later in life as well, but it just won’t be the same anymore.

The Future

When the celebrations for this day end, young moles still have some time before having to take on the new responsibilities. This will happen with the arrival of the new year a few weeks later. On that day, they’ll start the next stage of their life in a new school and a new job with new responsibilities that early adulthood brings. But the new responsibilities don’t only relate to work and studying. For many young girls and boys in Rich Areas of Ä+*4~ and T@Ö#Ä3 this is a time when they become ready to start looking for their future partner. The one of their own social status, of course. After this day, they will start attending parties with their parents where they’ll have a chance to meet an appropriate future spouse.

They’ll still have the next six years to fully adapt to this life and after highschool, they will finally be ready to finally fully enter adulthood. This too will be accompanied with similar celebrations.