The time of offerings is a festival that lasts for a week.
Day 0
On what's commonly known as day zero, the camping terrains near the tower start to fill up. These sites are little more than hilly grassfields between fruit trees, but they are relatively rock-free and serve their purpose well enough. There's no shortage of ale (there is plenty on the carts), and many people see each other for the first (and often only) time in the year.
Day 1
On the official first day of the festival more and more carts arrive. An inventory of goods is made by senior priests in the plaza. The chosen are expected to report to these priests before dusk.
Spoiler: Reporting to the priest“Another chosen arrives. Be welcome child! If you'll please give me your hand?” With religious formality and a welcoming smile he takes your right hand and cups it in between his own. You feel the chill of his signet ring pressing firmly down, and when he lets go you notice a stylized blue A has appeared where it touched you. “The mark of the chosen, may it please Abraxis.” He folds his hands and gives you a piercing but friendly look. “Tomorrow morning at dawn by the temple gates. May yours be the beauty that awakens Abraxis so he may once more bless us with his radiance. Have a good evening child.”
All throughout the day volunteers set up cooking stalls and make preparations for the coming week with the produce not going inside the tower.
On the evening/night before the tower ceremony there are several wildlife roasts served in camping fields. Magical fireworks are shot from the tower, which is quite a spectacle. People get drunk. The traditional snack for watching fireworks is roasted nuts, which is served out of stalls all over.
At some point during the evening you are approached by Tinker, a crazy-eyed gnome wearing a metalic hat. He's well known for having lost his mind after coming out of the tower some hundred years ago. People tend to shoo him away if he gets too obnoxious. He reeks, and not just of alcohol. His speech is slurred but understandable. He speaks looking directly at your face, a bit too close. An occasional drop of spit hits your forehead.
“Hey. Hey you! Listen! I wannatellyousomething! Listen. So, when you go insidethetemple... hic! Listen. The holy words.. they fry your mind. I'm telling you, they're looking. But the hat helps. Take that, I have a hat!! Can't see what I'm thinking now, can you?!” he flips off the tower before turning back to you. “Hey, you want a hat?”
Day 2
The chosen are expected to report to the temple (the largest building near the tower) at dawn.
The temple is quite grand. Beautiful white pillars on the front in roman style, and stone stairs leading to a massive wooden door. On the stairs are two lines of junior priests, welcoming you. They inspect your hands and point you inside the temple. Boys to the left, girls to the right.
You enter a changing room, one side of it lined with ceremonial robes. Your peers are stripping naked and leaving their possessions in the room, and leaving through the door on the far side of the room once they're done changing.