However, since I've grown up, I find I haven't as much time for Halloween. Last year, I was teaching as a volunteer ESL teacher on Halloween. I didn't even dress up! My hobbies and profession didn't really make celebrating Halloween easy, and so the magic of the holiday faded for me.
But being in a new place with people who are extremely interested in American culture--and, I think, just being around kids and young adults--has inspired in me a new excitement for Halloween.
Last week, students created decorations for the holiday. I found some templates online, and my counterparts and students found some colored paper, so we made decorations based on them and on little sticky-decorations my dad sent me (they're uber cute--thanks, Touchan!). We have pumpkins, black cats, owls, and ghosts! We also have cheese-cloth ghosts, made with cheese-cloth, tissue, and string. Making the decorations was a lot of fun, and one of my CPs, Tsogoo, helped:
The night before Halloween, I cut out a bunch of paper to make little owls to give out as prizes to the best group at the Halloween party. My counterpart, Bilge, and the department assistant Tsepa helped to glue the little owls together.
Mongolia doesn't have many of the same affordances of America, but I make do. So there are no pumpkins in Mongolia. Before Europeans came to America, it wasn't pumpkins they carved, but turnips. To get in touch with my ancient European roots, I thought I would try my hand at carving a turnip. It's certainly not as easy as a pumpkin, but honestly, nothing is lost of the spirit of Halloween. But maybe that's true regardless of what you're carving--or where you are or who you're with. For me, I guess, the spirit of Halloween isn't fancy costumes or pumpkin-shaped cookies. It's not horror films or haunted houses. For me, this year, Halloween is a happy, toothy lantern shining in darkness.
Happy Halloween.
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