Halloween in Singapore

Vince: Superman, again.
Edda: Cute interpretation of tomato or strawberry.

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I went to Vince’s school to tell them about Halloween, the holiday is getting more popular here, but mainly it’s just celebrated in the American neighborhoods (the opposite of Chinatown in the US) which is decidedly not where we live. The Chinese teacher was particularly interested in it, but it was pretty much impossible for me to explain (in Chinese) pagan holidays and All Saints Day, so I left it at children getting free candy. Also, how to explain “trick or treat”? Did I really want to say that if you don’t have treats, your house gets TPed or egged – it puts Americans in a weird light. But who knows, in Singapore, it perfectly fine to give sparklers and small firecrackers to a 4 year old.

Anyhow, I made the teachers go to different rooms in the school and then the kids and I went trick or treating. The love of getting free candy apparently crosses cultural boundaries without too much trouble.

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3 thoughts on “Halloween in Singapore”

  1. Love those pix. I’m send you ours to your email. Don’t fret over explaining the Halloween thing. Juan Esteban, the young man we’ve been emplying for awhile is from Mexico where Dias De Los Muertos is celebrated on November 2nd. He had no idea what Halloween was and why we were dressed so weird. Nor did he understand why the Day of the Dead parade was this past weekend and not tomorrow! he was very confused by the American ways.

  2. Oh, I love the intercultural celebrations – in the place I work at (PL) some time ago there was Moroccan day, first time probably the kids learnt about the country, there was a lot of dressing up, playing the instruments etc.

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