Carouseling

Carouseling refers to the custom of travelling in late hanahood. usually after foresting, or gathering karma by some other means, a hana will leave on her travels, typically in her twenties. There is usually a small intimate farewell ceremony called the Thola Feast, where her friends get together and give her a thola, a small ornate Memory Bag. Into this she will put mementos of her travels, her lovers, her successes and failures. Periodically she will empty it out and throw away anything that doesn't seem worth carrying around any more. When her bag is full of things that she cannot throw away, it will be time to settle down, either by opting for doulahood or as a shinzo.

The first destination for the fresh hana, if she's going about this the traditional way, is to make a pilgrimage to Zigsa's Nest at the time of the Feast of Discovery 27 January. This is how one would traditionally announce to one's brood that one is going on the carousel. Thsi custom is going a little out of fashion, however. After some time spent there, one would then head south again to the nearest World Tree (in this case the Arthur C. Clarke) and up it to the Zohra Astrocity. There one throws oneself into the energy and colour of Astrocity night life, has whirlwind affairs, and generally lives a life of sensation until it's time ot leave (no one can spend more than a year in the Astrocity at zero g, per every three years, so everyone is a visitor). The years in between are spent visitng the Zero Margins and watching the tertons at work. Terton-hana crushes are the stuff of legend. Of course, when one is finally tired of riding on the carousel, these same tertons, or their friends, sign on to be one's doulas.

The idea is that until the late twenties, one must live out every fantasy one can imagine, until at last one is exhausted by pleasure. Only then is one in the right mind to child and one must pick another who is similarly wearied, or at least wearied enough to want to take a few years off. Childing of course doesn't turn one into a nun; one continues to have torrid affairs, and when one is done with childing there is tertonhood stretching before one.