kiarados
This may be a stupid question, but what exactly is an anon?
That's not a stupid question, especially if you have not been on Gaia long.
Anyways, An anon is an Anonymous user who sends out cute messages with gifts to other users. Many anons role-play as anime/manga characters or famous people or other things people like and some anons come up with their own original anon character (I.e- The Horror Twins, BitterSweet Anon, etc). I tend to anon as anime characters, as I'm not creative enough to come up with my own character and I love anime anyways.
You can give out anon messages as gifts at any time, but its popular to do so during certain Gaia events. Anon-ing has become so popular, gaia admin has been putting sub-forums just for anon-ing in their recent event threads.
Hope my explanation helps!