Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Happy Halloween

Since Halloween as we know it -- with the pumpkins, costumes and trick-or-treating -- is really only celebrated in America, our recent Halloweens have been a bit toned down. Last year, we were in Saudi Arabia, where celebrations apart from Muslim holy days are not acknowledged, so all I did was draw monkey features on Misha's face for fun. 

In Kyrgyzstan, children certainly don't take to the streets to collect candy; however, there is a popular curiosity with this unique American tradition. My students loved looking at pictures from our past Halloweens, eager to see if it was really true that we go door to door asking for candy. My students also love scary movies and all things vampire and werewolf, especially since that new Twilight movie just hit theaters here. We had a fun day of pictionary using Halloween words, and several students even brought candy to share.

Misha's class at school had a full-blown Halloween party. The boys got to dress up as black devil cats, the girls became witches, and even the teaching staff donned costumes (something that would never happen in Saudi!). They even performed a dance to the Adams Family song and collected candy from the parents who came to watch their children.

To complete the fun, Misha and Sebby and I went out to buy a big pumpkin of our own to carve. The pumpkins here have a bit of a different shape, but never mind - we wanted our pumpkin to have a distinguished forehead.



Misha showed Sebby how to scoop out the seeds.


Misha designed the face on paper, but I carried out the hack job. Our friend Alihan came to see the final result - candle and all.


Misha liked it so much, he wanted to keep it in his room.



The boys often dress up in their superhero outfits, and though this wasn't actually for Halloween, it fits the spirit of the day. :)

2 comments:

Bill said...

Hey, some strong power-rangers there! Thanks for the nice Halloween pics! -mom

kate said...

Awe...it is fun to see Misha teaching sebby how to do everything. Wish you could have been here to paint my face. mom