photos: the great costumed reformation day party

photos: jack-o-lantern carving

photos: happy halloween

quicko: pumpkins!

I was thrilled to see pumpkins on sale today -- real good-sized, appropriately oranged pumpkins!  Australians aren't big into Halloween, but it was fun to find a taste of home in my friendly neighborhood Coles.

quicko: playing with the queen of hearts, night two

photos: playing with the queen of hearts

quicko: it's that time again ...

... Halloween!!  It's nearly upon us!  Australians are still rather bamboozled by the whole concept (you mean you don't have to be a mummy or witch or vampire?), but tonight the concern I'd particularly like to address is that, when they do decide to go in for a Halloween costume, they go in whole hog with the idea of rushing to the nearest costume shop and buying a costume.  This floors me.  Halloween costumes are meant to be made, not bought.  They're meant to be constructed, not put on the card.  You're allowed, of course, to buy parts, but the whole thing is a rather preposterous idea.  This year it turns out I'm actually spending way more than my typical Halloween budget, but this is a fluke, not the rule.  The fluke has occurred for two reasons:  first, the costume is getting more and more elaborate and requiring more and more accouterments, and, two, Australian "dollar stores" do not stock items one dollars; hence, the many various pieces I've bought at "Hot Dollar" range from $3 ($3! as a minimum!) to $15, which, really, I don't know how many more times I can say it, is preposterous -- preposterous!! -- for a "dollar store."  It's absolutely the same junk you get in America -- the stuff everyone uses to create Halloween costumes -- at, what's the opposite of a fraction? of the price.  Still works out cheaper than renting (renting! of all things!) a costume, though.  More of a trick than a treat, eh?

quicko: halloween, or lack thereof

Right, so, they don't really do Halloween here.

Everyone seems to have this vague idea that it's something those crazy Americans do where everyone dresses like a ghost or vampire or witch and there's something about pumpkins and something about lollies. It's here I have to stop them and point out that we call it "candy."

Work was great fun today: I came dressed as Pippi Longstocking, but hadn't quite been able to get my braids (plaits, for the Australians reading) out to the side yet. Thankfully Jack Sparrow and her (yes, her) first mate came to the rescue and helped me finagle a clothes hanger through to horizontal perfection and I managed to make it through the day more or less without maiming anyone.

In class, I made all my students leave the room, then knock individually and say "trick or treat" and then I gave them candy and let them in. After that we practiced "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat" until our sugar high wore off and we eased into the Monster Mash, which I later discovered they had had considerably more fun taking videos of me dancing to than they had doing their corresponding worksheet, the little goblins.

But back to the Australians -- they just really don't get Halloween. They don't mind the free candy, but they make the silliest mistakes. Jack Sparrow (obviously another American) told me she'd left a (real) jack-o-lantern out in front of her door one year and people came by and put candy in it. What a lovely idea -- I think I'll try it next year!

Another American found the dollar stores bursting with people buying the junk that passes for Halloween costuming here. (I don't think anyone realized you just concoct costumes with doo-dads you find around the house and in the costume box ...) An Australian co-worker said she had never known Halloween was "fancy dress." And no one seemed to realize that you don't have to be something scary. And they were all after "special" Halloween candy ... I don't think they grasped that, besides candy corn, it's just regular candy given in abundance. Oh, and none of them thought to check the wrapping for tampering before opening. (They haven't got a public service announcements about that on TV.)

And so, another happy Halloween, despite the lingering air of muddled confusion. Everyone was intrigued, and pretty much everybody couldn't do much but look at me and laugh (except the people on the street, who pretty much just stared until I said, "happy Halloween!" and then looked tremendously relieved). A wonderful holiday, spent in an odd sort of social isolation. Or maybe that was just my personal bubble of space being vigorously upheld by the wire tips poking out of my braids.

Thank goodness it fell on casual Friday.