Pooka Valley was named for the impish streak of its original Anglo settlers, and that tradition continues with its annual Halloween celebration, Books Valley. The town streets are all “renamed” with temporary overlays containing scary puns (Main Street becomes Bane Street, for instance). Bales of hay are brought in and stacked for the “Baleful Maze” in the town common. Bickerwood Manor is redressed as a haunted house, and the largest pumpkins from surrounding farms are brought in for a “pumpkin patch” that serves as both contest and commerce. Any unsold gourds are bought by the city and used in the “great gourd chuck” on Halloween Day. If H’ween falls on a weekday, school is canceled for that day and November 1, if that is also a weekday. This serves to allow the school to be cleaned, as well, since it is invariably egged and TP’d back to the Stone Age.

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