Punkie Night is a holiday mainly celebrated by the younger owls of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, and is reminiscent of Halloween. It takes place during the first new moon after the Milkberry Harvest Festival.
Celebrations[]
During Punkie Night, young owls (and some adults as well) don masks that make them look like a different species of owl, or sometimes even a different species of bird. The owls fly from hollow to hollow and perform songs and dances in return for treats or blessings. Owls often give out dried berries, dried caterpillars, or sometimes nootie tarts and pine nut cakes, but owlets have to work extra hard for the good treats. In Ga'hoole, this trick-or-treating is called "galooshing".
After galooshing, owlets meet up and trade sweets, often offering a large amount of regular snacks for the better treats. Games are also played, such as Blooking for Milkberries - essentially bobbing for apples - where blindfolded owls dip their beaks into a bucket of water and try to grab a Milkberry.
Often, the young owls will play tricks on the grown-ups, putting sap in their nests or tying their talons together as they sleep.
History[]
Exile[]
In Exile the owls of the tree celebrate Punkie Night to the full, seeing as the Milkberry Harvest Festival that year was cancelled out of respect for the Striga. However, under the cover of Punkie Night, more of the Striga's followers infiltrate the tree.
A Guide Book to the Great Tree[]
This is one of the holidays Otulissa talks about. On her first Punkie Night, after doing research on rare owl species, she decided to be a Rufescent Screech Owl. Nobody knew what she was, so after that she stuck to common bird species.Otulissa recalls that on more than one occasion she's found her feathers stuck to her nest after Punkie Night, behavior she considers uncouth.
Trivia[]
- This is likely Twilight's favorite holiday, since he still celebrates it even through adulthood, wearing a pygmy owl mask despite being a Great Gray.
- Punkie Night bares quite a few similarities to how Halloween was celebrated in Scotland and Ireland in the olden days.
- The Ga'hoolian term for trick-or-treating, "galooshing", may have come from the West Mid-Scots term for the same thing, "galoshans".