This Hand is the five day period between the Twelfth Passage Hand and the beginning of the New Year. The Waiting Hand is a solemn time. Little business is done and many Goreans stay home. It is a time of fasting, meditation and mourning. The doors of many homes are sealed with pitch, painted white and have branches of the brak bush nailed to them. The brak bush is meant to keep bad luck away. On the dawn of the vernal equinox, a ceremonial greeting of the sun takes place. The completion of the greeting is signified by the ringing of great bars suspended above the city. The people then issue forth from their houses. The brak is burned on the threshold and the pitch is washed away. The Initiate Caste does not seem to get deeply involved in the rituals of the Waiting Hand so it is unlikely to have much religious significance. It is more likely simply an ancient superstition.