One of celebrations which you may read about is the changing of a year. As you can read in the post about the
gorean time the numbers or names of the year vary from area to area and from city to city. But about the layout of the year there is pretty much consensus as far as where it begins, ends and how it is divided.
“...Most Gorean cities use the Spring Equinox as the date of the New Year. Turia, however, uses the Summer Solstice. The Spring Equinox, incidentally, is also used for the New Year by the Rune-Priests of the North, who keep the calendars of Torvaldsland. They number years from the time of Thor's gift of the stream of Torvald to Torvald, legendary hero and founder of the northern fatherlands. In the calendars of the Rune-Priests the year was 1,006.” Marauders, page 58
"It was now near the end of the first passage hand, that the following En'Kara, in which occurs the Spring Equinox. The Spring Equinox, in Port Kar as well as in most other Gorean cities, marks the New Year." Raiders of Gor, page 126
For most Goreans, the Gorean year begins with the vernal equinox (first day of spring - 21th of March), though we are told that for Turia and possibly other more southern cities, the year begins with the summer solstice.
According to the standard Gorean calendar then, between the last 'passage hand' of one year and the first hand of the first month of the following year, there is a period of five days called 'the waiting hand'.
In preparation for the new year, Goreans spend the five days of the waiting hand bidding the old year farewell by taking part in a number of rituals which include both mourning the passing year and preparations to welcome the new year. They will fast, meditate, refrain from singing, paint their door white and attach branches of the Brak bush to them in order to discourage the entry of bad luck into the house in the coming year. In Torvaldsland, the vigil of the vernal equinox is also said to be the time when the stones and columns which decorate homes are repainted.
When this period is ended, on the day of the vernal equinox, (or the summer solstice in the south), they begin celebrating the New Year and will do so for ten days with as much splendor as can be afforded. Aside from the expected festivities, cities will have fairs, games, tournaments and carnival type events, their flavor and color depending on culture and location.
(source: http://www.worldofgor.com/ref/ref_celebrations.asp)"It had been a long, hard winter for me and I think I, as well as the common citizens of Ar, rejoiced in the coming of En'Kara. The girls had finished their training during the Twelfth Passage Hand. Little then remained for them except to review their lessons, eat and sleep well, and be in prime condition for their sale in the late summer, during the Fifth Passage Hand, on the Love Feast.
On the first day of the Waiting Hand, the last five days of the old year, the portals of Ar, including even that of the House of Cernus, had been painted white, and in many of the low-caste homes had been sealed with pitch, not to be opened until the first day of En'Kara. Almost all doors, including that of the House of Cernus, had nailed to them some branches of the Brak Bush, the leaves of which, when chewed, have a purgative effect. It is thought that the pitch and the branches of the Brak Bush discourage the entry of bad luck into the houses of the citizens. During the days of the Waiting Hand the streets are almost deserted, and in the Houses there is much fasting, and little conversation, and no song. Rations even in the House of Cernus were halved during this period. Paga and Ka-la-na were not served. The slaves in the pens received almost nothing.
Then, at dawn, on the first day of En'Kara, in the name of the city, the Administrator of Ar, or a Ubar if it be Ubar, greets the sun, welcoming it to Ar on the first day of the New Year. The great bars suspended about the walls of the city then ring out for more than an Ahn with their din, and the doors of the city burst open and the people crowd out onto the bridges, clad in the splendor of their finest, singing and laughing. The doors are painted green and the pitch washed away, and the branches of the Brak Bush burned in a small ceremony on the threshold. There are processions in the city that day, and songfests, and tournaments of the game, and recitations by poets, and contests and exhibitions. When the lanterns on the bridges must be lit the people return home, singing, carrying small lamps, and give the night over to feasting and love. Even the slaves in the iron pens in the House of Cernus received that day a small cake with oil and had their troughs filled with water mixed with Paga. It was also the day that, before the High Council and the Administrator, Cernus, of the House of Cernus, accepted the red of the Warrior from the hands of Saphronicus, Captain of the Taurentians. The following day would begin the races and games sponsored by the House of Cernus." Assassin of Gor, pages 211-212
