[quote=@Lovejoy]
Hm, what if we just had two seasons for two halves of the year? The Bright season and the Dark season. Would this work?
[/quote]

Dawn and Dusk festivals on the solstices. Boom. We're good now.

(And by "festival" I mean print on the calendar. I don't think Varya itself would place much value on celebrations, but the other nations likely did.)