Happy Halloween!!

Halloween is one of those crazy holidays that I feel is very American. Of course the roots come from Samhain in Britain and we have similar festivals like the Day of the Dead in Mexico but Jack-o-Lanterns, trick or treating, costumes, candy corn, bobbing for apples, and candy in the shape of eye balls and fingers is strange enough to only be found in America (I could be wrong and if I am, please let me know! I don't want to be ignorant of this)!

For those of you who know me, Fall is the most wonderful time of the year and Halloween is the greatest day on the calendar. Today is Halloween, the most beautiful and spooky of holidays and while I don't have any plans to go to a Halloween party or dress up or go trick or treating (sad face), I did manage to have a pretty eventful Halloween season (sans pumpkin carving).

First off, my students were bombarded with Halloween, candy, games, and movies. I wanted to introduce them to the holiday; they had all mentioned that they enjoyed learning more about American culture, food, festivals, and holidays so clearly I went with my favorite holiday.

Last week, we learned all about the history of Halloween (Samhain VS. All Hallow's Eve). I brought candy in for them. I showed them movie clips from The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus. We looked at costumes, talked about what we would dress up as (the best answer was, "A cake!") and I taught them different words associated with the holiday (like "Boo!" and "Jack-o-Lantern") and we played BINGO.

This week, we exchanged scary stories. So I told them a few scary stories, acted them out, and tried to scare them. Then, I broke them up into groups, gave them 15 minutes to come up with a scary story, and they had to perform it for the rest of the class. These kids are SICK! They came up with so freaky stories (mostly having to do with either late night bus rides or mirrors). I think they really enjoyed it and it got them talking.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, "Amanda! Teaching a class on Halloween and telling a few scary stories cannot be all that you did to celebrate Halloween!" And I would tell you that you are right!

Luckily, I have been blessed with finding a place snuggled in among the other foreigners here and we celebrated the holiday last weekend with one another and many of our Chinese friends and even some of our students.

Sadly, when packing to come over to China, I did not think that I would be attending a Halloween party so I did not bring anything with me that might help me with a costume. And so, my costume was slightly on the lame side. I wore all white (white dress, white tights, white boots, and a white bow in my hair) and I wrote lies along my arms and chest and I went as a Little White Lie. It would have to do. Some of the other foreigners came up with some awesome ideas--we had a Twister board, a chef, a paintbrush, Paul Bunyan (lumberjack extraordinaire), and even good ol' Honest Abe Lincoln.

This party was a hit filled with tons of food (CANDY CORN!!) and even more guests (I never though I would think that DH's apartment needed to be bigger)! We had a costume fashion show, taught the students about bobbing for apples (which ended up being REALLY popular), there were costume photo shoots, and we played tons of games (the good classics like Ghosts in the Graveyard, Red Rover, an egg toss, and mummy races).

 Bobbing for apples and toilet paper mummy races

Red Rover!

Egg toss!

 It was so much fun taking these customs and games that you grew up playing and sharing them with people who have never even thought of these things before. I think Halloween is so ingrained into our society: almost every child dresses up for Halloween, attends a party (even if it is just at school), and goes trick or treating. I always took the holiday for granted and so to have to take something that I love so much and share it with people who have never done these things or heard of these things before made me look at it in a different way and it definitely helped me appreciate my (crazy) culture even more.

And, of course, Adam and I had our own small Halloween celebration complete with me dressing up as Buzz Lightyear, wandering along Cangqian street, street food, a bag of chocolate (and peanut butter!!) Halloween candy, and a viewing of The Shining (before I pathetically fell asleep).

One of our favorite things to do ♥

Boo!! Happy Halloween!!!

 So with classes coming to an end this week (my students this morning shouted, "Trick or treat!" as I walked into my first class this morning and a student poured candy ♥ ) and our Halloween costume party behind us, a few scary movies thrown in for fun, and a surprise bag of Halloween candy that I just found in my closet, I would say that the season of Halloween is coming to a close over here in the Middle Kingdom... Just in time for NaNoWriMo...

Until Next Time,
Amanda

PS- I officially filled my writing notebook yesterday (not good timing with November being tomorrow) and so Adam went out and bought me a new one. Behold the greatest Chinglish I have ever read: