of Ghost, Scary Clowns and Pumpkins

Bunny, witches and angel. >.<

I regard this year’s Halloween holiday as something cultural because this is the first time in my life “celebrating” Halloween. Back in Malaysia, Halloween tend to only serve as a ground for people to do shopping since there will be great sales everywhere. However, as I was seeing the “process” of Halloween here – from the preparation to the aftermath – everything is an eye opener for me.

The one similarity that I have found between my home country and here in the United States is that people do decorate their houses for Halloween. However, the Malaysian never really carry out any trick-or-treats at their neighborhood. Hence, as a first timer, I did not really dress up for this day but I tailed some of my friends to knock on the doors at the St. Cloud neighborhood, nearby the Clearwater road.

Since Halloween this year falls on the weekend, everything seemed to be amplified. Students are not worried to party till late night because they can have their sweet dreams till the afternoon next day. The school did organize some activities in conjunction with this extreme day. Even the food served in the Garvey Commons were themed to Halloween, yes you guessed it, pumpkins. The Shoemaker Residence Hall was filled with woo-haa and screams since it was turned into a giant haunted house. The Residence Life too organized a ghost stories time held in the mist of this “creepy” day.

The fun of this holiday is not only seeing people dressed up, but also to hang out with friends after being overwhelmed so much for midterm examinations and tests. One hilarious part of the today’s Halloween trend is I realized that children no long walk from doors to doors for candies, they are fetched by their daddies’ car. It is kind of comical when I saw these kids getting down from their car, in their costumes, knock on the doors, get the candies and hop on the car again, heading to the next door. I guess this is partially due to the wind chill on Halloween this year.

Halloween is an exciting holiday. However, I personally think that Halloween should not be overdone. Even though it is fun to dress up like some funny clowns or scary witches, one should never try to “display” too much of themselves. I feel sorry for some of the girls who tried to wear hardly anything, walking on the freezing cold streets and laughing along with some strangers. While it is a holiday for all to relax and have fun, nothing tragedy should take place hence we must not be the provokers.

Kids at Crossroad Mall

Overall, Halloween is cool. I consider it as my first American-styled holiday. I look forward to the next holidays that are installed. =)