This is surely my very first Halloween party! I have never thought much of Halloween. To me it was more of an *”Ang Moh” festival, a big dress up party. Well it still is! hehe.

Halloween happens on the 31st October and you can wiki it here. In short it’s the western version of our “Qing Ming”, during which, the spirits roam the earth and it’s also a time to remember our loved ones who have passed on.

Anyway, on that fateful 31st October (just 2 weeks back. I know. It took me 2 weeks to put this post up. I had wanted to, but…) evening, 宝贝and I were enjoying the evening breeze after her dinner at the porch. I was home on sick leave as I had caught an Australian bug on my last day in Western Australia. 2 little monsters (1 dressed in ghoulish black from head to toe and holding a huge red fork, the other with a “terrifying” mask and holding a grand big hammer) came up to us.

“Aren’t you going for the Halloween party at the function room?” said the little monsters.

“Erm… What party??” I said.

“There’s a Halloween party at the function room today. They dropped the invitation in your mailbox. Don’t you check your mailbox??”

He’s right. My mailbox is always overflowing. Sometimes, I do admire the postman for being able to stuff things in, up to the brim. “Oh. I haven’t checked it yet.”

“That’s right. You just came back from Australia. You can get prizes for playing games at the function room! And there will be trick-or-treat later and you can participate by sticking the pumpkin on your door and the children will come trick-or-treating. But you need a Halloween costume.” They eyed 宝贝and me from head to toe. We were dressed in T-shirts and shorts. Not very Halloween appropriate.

“She doesn’t have a costume. Sigh…”

“We have a Halloween hat. She can wear it. I’m sure they will allow her to participate.”

They ran back to their house and I vaguely heard some yelling and rummaging and emerged with a huge orange hat and thumped it on 宝贝’s head. “There! She’s dressed for Halloween! But she needs a bag to hold the sweets.”

宝贝 insisted on carrying her Strawberry Shortcake knapsack. 2 year olds now have their own opinions! I wonder what I was like when I was 2! So dressed in her Halloween hat, Wellington (it’s drizzling) and her pink bag (not exactly Halloween colour though), the 4 of us scrambled to the function room.

And wow! There were so many children and parents (?? Children I can understand. But so many parents! Is everyone on sick leave, or do these people not need to work? Envy!) dressed up to the nines in their costumes. They took this very very seriously. We’d probably missed most of the games because it was goodie bag distribution time. Our ghoulish monster helped 宝贝 collect her goodie bag. She’s one of the younger ones, who didn’t quite get the picture of the on-going.

The experienced monsters told us that it’s time for trick-or-treat. Of course, we followed the instructions of the experts. We were told to look out for doors with the orange pumpkin stickers. There were extremely elaborately decorated homes, complete with orange carved pumpkins, placed eerily along the steps. Dark lighting, “blood splattered” walls, Halloween banners etc. I was utterly impressed with my neighbours. It’s my first Halloween party after all (*suaku mah). There were adult witches, Hannibal, ghouls, you-name-it-you-get-it. And I was in… still T-shirts and shorts…

Coming back to the trick-or-treat, the 2 little monsters led 宝贝 up the stairs, flanking her at both sides (they really look after her very well), knocked on the door and yelled TRICK OR TREAT! Doors opened and the adults pretended to cringe in fear and offered trays and trays of sweets and small toys to the fearful monsters. 宝贝was initially very reserved, but after a few trial runs, she was also yelling TRICK OR TREAT alongside the older kids.

It was pretty tiring to comb the entire estate (it’s really big!) and 宝贝’s legs weren’t very long. Her little knapsack was full to the brim with sweets and toys, and she was laughing because she participated with the older kids. As usual, it ended with a scary photo shoot.

2012 Halloween Checklist

1. Halloween costume for 宝贝

2. Halloween costume for moi

3. Carve little pumpkins for landing decoration

4. Get a cool pumpkin basket for 宝贝’s treat collection

5. Prepare goodies for the kids

*ang moh – hokkien dialect. Direct translation : red-haired. Fond nickname for Caucasians.

suaku – mountain tortoise aka ignoramus.