Festival of the Gazirad (GAH-zir-ahd)

The Festival of the Gazirad is a Builder Gnomish festival, celebrated every years on the tenteenth of Octomember. The actual date of celebration varies from tribe to tribe and settlement to settlement due to imprecise timekeeping and calendars. It is to celebrate the herald of the flying Gazirad, which the Builder Gnomes expect to return someday, inspiring them all to return to their ancestral home of Tolastata.

The Festival is celebrated as a day of great revelry by the Builder Gnomes, and a number of different traditions are associated with it. The most common is that it is a day of daring invention, when many Gnomes enter their newest inventions into a contest. The one who is designated as having the most useful, interesting, creative invention is dubbed "Chief Tinkerer".

The Festival culminates in all gnomes standing together at a tall point wherever they are, watching for the return of the Gazirad. When it inevitably does not return, everyone returns to their homes quietly in solemn reflection.

The story behind the Festival is contained in the The Tale of the Brave Gnomes Traveling on a Flying Two-Wheeled Gasbag of Death But They Will Be Back Someday I Promise.

History

The Festival began a few years into the Builder Gnomes' exile from Tolastata, as they made their way out into the world. One of their first stops was a brief stay in the furbolg village of Differlang where the citizens held a similar celebration, the Festival of the Harbinger. The Builder Gnomes, being good traditional inventors, completely copied the idea.

As they began to split and go their separate ways into the world, the Builder Gnomes carried different traditions depending where they ended up and what cultures they blended into.

Execution

The Festival is marked by a number of traditional rituals, ceremonies and commemorations.

Among the most common traditions are:

• Shazproing - Young adults typically use the day as an excuse to flirt with and chase their sweethearts (or wannabe sweethearts) around the village. Girl gnomes typically find places to hide that are somewhat at an elevation, and jump into their intended' arms by surprise (commemorating the test driver being flung into the test pilot). In the early days the boy would jump into the girls arms, thus achieving slightly more historical accuracy, but the general differential in body size and mass between boy and girl gnomes led to several injuries. Over time the genders swapped roles, although injuries still tend to persist as the boys are typically unaware they are about to be leapt upon by an adolescent, hormonally-charged gnome girl.
• Zegtag - There is almost always a form of a Goat of the Day contest, where gnome farmers compete to find the best goat. The Winner is judged at noon on the day of the Festival, is put on a pedestal in the center of the square and given a kind of crown to wear.
• Destination Invention Competition, Exhibition and Demolition (DICED) - There is almost always a big invention competition, as gnomes young and old create new and interesting inventions, vying for a blue ribbon as Best in Gnow. Almost no fatalities are ever recorded, at least not anymore. Hardly. Well, occasionally. And a random maiming or two, but that's it. The winner of the competition is highly regarded and feted during the subsequent year, and some larger Builder Gnome communities give that year's winner the honorary title and position of Chief Tinkerer for the town.
• The Grand ZugZug - Just before sunset, the Festival participants line the streets of the village or town, and as the Grand ZugZug, or the Grand Parade begins. The procession includes young gnome men on bicycles, colorful flying machine floats, children displaying their Gazirstocks, and the Goat of the Day winner (and their owner) is the Grand Marshall. The entire parade leads up to the highest point of the village and all the Festival participants follow for the culmination of activities, the Vilnock
• The Vilnock - Loosely translated from Old Gnome, Vilnock means "want to go home." The Vilnock happens at the very end of the day's festivities. All the Festival participants wait patiently on the highest point in the village, anticipating the arrival of the Gazirad as it finally completes its amazing journey around the world. The reappearance is supposed to signal that they all may now return to their ancestral home of Tolastata and the Deezundeer Mountains. Every year they are disappointed as the flying machine never appears, but they go home warm and happy knowing their foretold return home is just another year away,

Components and tools

Children build colorful representations called Gazirstoks depicting what they believed the Gazirad might actually look like. These creative inventions are typically tied to a pole or stick by a long string and swung about in the air, representing the flight of the device. 

Participants

• There is often a committee that helps plan the festival every year in each Builder Gnome community.
• The Goat King is the gnome that owns the goat who wins the Zegtag. He or she are celebrated by standing with their winning goat on the main Pedestal, and in the Grand ZugZug.
• The Chief Tinkerer is the winner of the Destination Invention Competition, Exhibition and Demolition in some communities.

Observance

The tenteenth of Octomember on the gnomish calendar is the traditional date that the Festival is celebrated. Sometimes the day before, sometimes the day after depending on whether they can get things in gear.