Growing up, Halloween was always a favorite of mine. I'm sorry that I can't post a picture of me, circa 8th grade (since it's in MN and not accessible). That was the year that I went dressed as the Hardin County Courthouse (and my brother was City Hall). Yes, we made the costumes ourselves, out of cardboard boxes that we painted with bricks painstakingly hand-drawn. I messed up a bit on the armhole placement, so I never quite managed to get my head all the way up the tower (my face was one of the clock faces).
Halloween was always about dressing up and using your imagination, not about scary things or gore. I still hate scary movies and refuse to watch them. Even suspense movies give me nightmares and I don't like murder mystery shows unless I know who dies and who did it in advance.
So, with that background, we've been happy to let our girls experience the fun of dressing up and running around getting candy. Here in Arequipa, there are some things that are much the same as Halloween in the states and some that are pretty different. And a third category- "claim Halloween for yourself and make it awesome" that we were lucky enough to tag onto here.
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| Tinkerbell and our little Princess Pea |
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| Girls at the beginning of the party in the park- the little cat kept trying to run away. |
Things that are the Same:
- Kids dress up in uniforms (very similar- mix of princesses, fairies, superheroes, cartoon characters, some "scary" things, esp. for older kids).
- Kids go out trick-or-treating.
- Kids love candy and sweets.
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| Trick-or-Treating in the mall |
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| Once the kids figured out a store was giving candy, a whole group entered. |
Things that are Different:
- Almost all costumes are rented, not purchased (and renting them is pretty spendy, compared to US prices and considering the average income here.) We used dress up clothes we brought from home for both girls and I bought a wing kit downtown for M's costume.
- Trick-or-treating is mostly at businesses, not at individual homes. If at individual homes, it's the decision of the neighborhood and (I think) done primarily for kids in that neighborhood and their friends. We didn't hand out candy or have any trick-or-treaters.
- Businesses hand out mostly hard candy, with a few doing popcorn (not always in a bag- scooped out of a large bin), and some doing small crackers or cookies.
- Kids say "Sorpresa!" (Surprise!) and not "trick-or-treat" or the directly translated equivalent. But in practical experience, most of them just sort of went in, looked hopeful, and were either given candy or waved away by businesses that weren't handing anything out.
- A lot of employees had costumes, which isn't necessarily different, but the grocery store employees had MATCHING costumes....at Plaza Vea (kind of like a Super Target) all the men were dressed as cowboys, for example.
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| Trick-or-Treating in the mall |
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| Some mall performers (hired by a store) |
New thing that was really fun:
There are a lot of ecological, healthy-minded folks that we've met down here. (Family, don't worry- I can still learn plenty of hippie tricks.) One of them is wonderfully creative and inclusive and coordinated a kids party in mid-afternoon at the park near her house. The parents all brought some kind of healthy treat, and the kids had a chance to run around the park, slide on the slides, and trick-or-treat around the park. We had the cutest little pumpkin fruit cups, papaya/banana smoothies, glove "bags" of popcorn, healthy brownie bites, monster popcorn (with honey and spirulina (a kind of algae) sprinkled on it to make it green), and organic fruit.
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| Her favorite treat- papaya/banana smoothie. |
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| Super cute "pumpkin" fruit cups. |
We went bobbing for apples (stems picked to be long and give the kiddos a chance to succeed) and it was such a treat to be able to let the kids eat whatever they wanted without worrying about it.
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| M's first bob! |
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| A thought apple bobbing was hilarious. |
We had a great time out and about and enjoying the holiday experience in a new country. The not so fun part? Learning that today is a national holiday AFTER showing up to school with Miss M. The custodian was at the gate and told me there wasn't any school today. I had kind of wondered...because there was a school party last night, and often if the teachers work extra there is no school soon thereafter...but I had looked at her school calendar and in her homework notebook (where they have sent such notes before) and it didn't say anything about no school. I think it's one of those things that everyone just "knows," except we don't. So M, A and I got some quality bonding time this morning bussing to school and walking home.
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Funny sight of the day...they put all the Christmas decorations
up at the mall this past week. So the kids were in costumes
walking right by a giant Christmas tree and elves.
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