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HISTORY OF THIS HOLIDAY (AS RECORDED BY HISTORIAN QUARREL)
I extrapolated the history of this day and its saints
from several technical reports and a feather collection. It appears
that the bird which gives its name to this day was an introducted
species of a planet close to Mutters Spiral. The planet of Potiandes
had a tropical climate and was host to a myriad of animal and plant
species. In some ways, it was a planet a bit like Earth except that,
due to an oversight at the time of construction, it had no moon. Of
course this posed a bit of a problem for the nocturnal animals and
plant life which lived on Potiandes. Night time on Potiandes was absolutely
pitch black and it was incredibly hard for anybody to get anything
done.
In the end, it was the great god IT who came to the saviour of the nocturnal
flora and fauna of Potiandes. The planet of Potiandes had come to IT’s
attention after its nocturnal inhabitants had brought offerings to IT and
sought IT’s help to alter their situation. IT being a nice, merciful and,
above all, creative god did indeed find a way to help the nocturnal
Potiandians. IT introduced a new species of nocturnal bird to the planet (with
due notice to the native flora and fauna already in existence there).
Using a cacatua roseicapilla* (possibly of the lutino variety) as a model for
the new species, IT created the spotted galah. This is a nocturnal bird
species, which feeds on birdseed and biscuits (several species of these two
items grew wild on Potiandes) and which emits a phosphorescent glow from the
spots on its body. IT created a large population of spotted galahs and their
nightly presence on Potiandes helped to throw a good deal of light on the
situation. The nocturnal plant and animal life of Potiandes were very grateful
to IT and to this day worship IT on a regular basis with offerings of the
sacred food of IT - chocolate.
For this holiday there are actually two saints. If you noticed while reading
this that I’ve mentioned the presence of nocturnal plants on Potiandes, I will
tell you now that this is not a typing error. The nocturnal plant life of
Potiandes lives not by photosynthesis, but by a complex biological process
involving air, water and a type of purple and orange striped fungus. Anyway,
the two saints of Potiandes are the small rodent type creature (Saint Dentario)
and the plant (Saint Flowsuner) who were responsible for appealing to IT for
help in the first place. They were canonized for their persistence and
ingenuity.
*The scientific name for the Australian Galah.
TRADITIONAL CELEBRATION METHOD OF THIS DAY (AS RESEARCHED BY
LORD HOGFISH)
Itonians traditionally treat all spotted galahs with extra respect on this day,
especially if they can't get across a street on their own and it is traditional to
provide them with one cake per galah (you'll probably get the cake back as spotted
galahs don't eat cake).
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