There are 12 twenty-five day Gorean months in most of the calendars of the various cities. Each month, containing five five-day weeks, is separated by a five-day period called the Passage Hand. The Passage hand separates between every month, there being one exception which is the last month of the year. This month is separated from the first month of the next year, which begins with the Vernal Equinox, not only by a Passage Hand but by another five-day period called the Waiting Hand. During the Waiting Hand is the time doorways are painted white, little food is eaten or drunk, no singing or public rejoicing is done. In its way it is akin to a period of mourning for the old year gone. Goreans spend much of their time outdoors, on the bridges between the cylinders and in the streets. They have a reverence for nature that is not always as appreciated on earth as it is on Gor.

2:178-179   "Chronology, incidentally, is the despair of scholars on Gor, for each city keeps track of time by virtue of its own Administrator Lists; for example, a year is referred to as the Second Year when so-and-so was Administrator of the City. One might think that some stability would be provided by the Initiates who must keep a caldendar of their feasts and observances, but the Initiates of one city do not always celebrate the same feast on the same day as do those of another city. If the High Initiate of Ar should ever succeed in extending his hegemony over the High Initiates of rival cities, a hegemony which he claims he possesses already incidentally, a unified calendar might be introduced. But so far there has been no military victory of Ar over other cities and, accordingly, free of the sword, the Initiates of each city regard themselves as supreme within their own walls."

On the Vernal Equinox, which marks the first day of the New Year there is great rejoicing; the doors are painted green there is song, games, contests, visiting of friends and feasting which lasts for the first ten days of the month, thereby doubling the period taken by the Waiting Hand. Month names differ from city to city, but among the civilized cities there are four months, associated with the equinoxes and solstices and the great fairs of the Sardar.