On Halloween

Halloween is an interesting event. We live here in a culture that doesn't traditionally celebrate it, yet the city around us is also: saturated by materialism, heavily influenced by western culture, fascinated by the darkly supernatural, and replete with international people. So it seems that, more and more, Halloween is finding its way to Bangkok (although still not on the radar of the vast majority of people). Unfortunately, it's often the most macabre elements that are highlighted and for sale in the stores. A nearby mall had an event called เล่นกับผี, which translates, "play with ghosts" (or devils).

And yet, I do find a great deal of sense in the whole 'open your doors to your neighbors' idea. So when a sign went up in our building on October 30 announcing that trick or treating would happen the following day, for those interested, 'traditionally, from 6-7 pm' :), we opted in, which meant putting a little sign with a cat peeking out of a happy jack-o-lantern on our door. I volunteered to be in charge of making some special fun, so Ju and I spent some time that afternoon gluing olives onto bell peppers with cream cheese, and that sort of thing, to make the silly supper above. When the school kids came home, they found their bento boxes, three costumes laid out, and- the wonder of our sweet children- were delighted. The clothes had come out of their drawers, the capes out of their dress up box, the construction paper for the letters out of their craft box...add some little masks I found, and voila! Happy children. To quote Em, "This is the best costume I've EVER had!" Easy to please is a wonderful characteristic.

Super Trio. Add paper bags from the pantry and we're all set!

After we ate our veggies, we trooped up and down stairwells, warm and perspiring, with a smallish troop of Asian costumed cuties, spying out pumpkins with kitties pasted to doors. I reminded my trio to 'wai' their thank yous as the bags of dehydrated fish strips and various other interesting 'treats' were dropped into their bags.

With the cutie Thai-Japanese triplets that live upstairs

When the fun ended ('traditionally') at 7 pm, we retired to our home (mercifully cooled by the candy distributor) and watched Charlie Brown. A good time was had by all. I loved watching my dear ones as they delighted in the experience and we connected with some neighbors, which is a very good thing. We now have a substantial amount of sweet (and fishy) stuff hanging around, and, sadly, I can't find one thing in those bags that tempts me!