I hate Halloween. When I was a kid, I loved it - I got too much candy and stayed up later than usual as a little kid; played with eggs and shaving cream and no, nobody ever steps on the Flaming Bag of Poo as a teenager. When I had kids I learned to hate it. They got too much candy and stayed up too late as little kids; played with silly string and toilet paper and no, nobody ever steps on the Flaming Bag of Poo as teens. My favorite part about the idea that we were moving to Asia last summer was that I could dispense with the whole ugly scene.
Ha Ha! That's where I was wrong. Here in the Woodlands of Singapore, a neighorbood I fondly (or not so fondly) refer to as 'Little America' Halloween is quite the experience.
I was warned a couple weeks ago. I needed to prepare myself. People decorate to the hilt. They bring candy back from the States when they take trips there. The rough estimate of candy needs for the two-hour melee is around 3,000 pieces. People admonished me to give out one piece per child.
Naturally I did not have any candy. I looked around at the stores here, but individually wrapped stuff is either nonexistent or prohibitively expensive. We could shut the gate and turn off the lights, but that seemed pretty party pooperish. So we did what any self-respecting unprepared American would do - we headed to Mustafa in Little India. Mustafa is a multi-story shopping mecca where one can meet every imaginable need. The stuff isn't much cheaper, but the variety is impossible to beat. We bought 25 pounds of garden variety wrapped hard candy that an American kid would scoff at. We happily spent $65 on the stuff. We laughed about heading to Little India to buy candy for a pagan American holiday that we were celebrating in Singapore.
The 3,000 number was not an exaggeration. The roads were closed to traffic and the community hired security. The streets looked like Disneyland on a long weekend. We gave out one piece of candy per child and ran out in about 1 1/2 hours. We had a fair number of Americans, but most of these people were local. Everone - including adults - wore costumes and trick or treated. My favorite people were the locals...they were beaming; they seemed to relish this American holiday; and their greeting...instead of the traditional 'trick or treat?' Happy Haroreen!
Ha Ha! That's where I was wrong. Here in the Woodlands of Singapore, a neighorbood I fondly (or not so fondly) refer to as 'Little America' Halloween is quite the experience.
I was warned a couple weeks ago. I needed to prepare myself. People decorate to the hilt. They bring candy back from the States when they take trips there. The rough estimate of candy needs for the two-hour melee is around 3,000 pieces. People admonished me to give out one piece per child.
Naturally I did not have any candy. I looked around at the stores here, but individually wrapped stuff is either nonexistent or prohibitively expensive. We could shut the gate and turn off the lights, but that seemed pretty party pooperish. So we did what any self-respecting unprepared American would do - we headed to Mustafa in Little India. Mustafa is a multi-story shopping mecca where one can meet every imaginable need. The stuff isn't much cheaper, but the variety is impossible to beat. We bought 25 pounds of garden variety wrapped hard candy that an American kid would scoff at. We happily spent $65 on the stuff. We laughed about heading to Little India to buy candy for a pagan American holiday that we were celebrating in Singapore.
The 3,000 number was not an exaggeration. The roads were closed to traffic and the community hired security. The streets looked like Disneyland on a long weekend. We gave out one piece of candy per child and ran out in about 1 1/2 hours. We had a fair number of Americans, but most of these people were local. Everone - including adults - wore costumes and trick or treated. My favorite people were the locals...they were beaming; they seemed to relish this American holiday; and their greeting...instead of the traditional 'trick or treat?' Happy Haroreen!
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