It is an annual traditional festival that is of patriarchal nature, as it is only celebrated by male descendants who are paternal natives to the specific locations where the particular event is taking place.
During the festival, females and non-natives stay indoors as oral history has it that Orò must not be seen by women and non-participating people.
[5] When the Oba or other important official dies, a special atonement and period of mourning are held.
It is believed that any woman who comes out and encounters Oro will suffer dire consequences which includes death.
Fágúnwà's 1954 novel Ìrìnkèrindó nínú Igbó Elégbèje (Expedition to the Mountain of Thought), where the mother of Olojumajele flees into the forest because she hears the sound of the Orò bullroarers both behind and ahead of her and is scared she might come face-to-face with the Orò spirit.