DH New Year Traditions? And other Holidays. What do the people of DH and Desoleum do at the turning of the New Year (Singing Hymns? Polishing your cog? fasting? burning prayer messages to the Emperor?)? What are the other big holidays and their traditions? Emperors Birthday? Death of Horus day (Wear a Horus mask and burn him in effigy?)?

Recently my players got to witness Emperor Day, the one holiday 'universally' practiced across the Imperium in some form or another. Not his birthday or anything, just a day all about that worship and thankfulness.

There are three 'big' holy festivals for the Imperium mentioned in the lore (plus a plethora of 'saint's days' which no-one outside the relevant world/subsector/sector has heard of or cares about).

• Candlemass - New Year midnight celebration. Relatively quiet and restrained
• The Feast Of The Emperor's Ascension - Demonstrative but commemorative, a sort of combined Christmas/Thanksgiving, remembers the day Himself got locked in the throne. Also the day (both times!) that Ghazgkhull's invasion fleet hoved into the Armageddon system. Happy holiday - have a Waaaaggh! with friends to celebrate.
• The Sanguinalia - sort of Easter. Remembers Sanguinius's sacrifice. Starts with a big street party and people wear red, followed by a sort of lent-like period, then another big party.

In my campaign, I have established that superstitious voidmen consider it bad luck to pass the new year (i.e. the change of the Imperial calendar) in the warp. Ships with chaplains divert these fears by using the opportunity to conduct a deck-by-deck reconsecration of the vessel. If a ship doesn't have a chaplain, the party's Cleric can curry favor by conducting this ceremony himself.