Voice of Will: Halloween in China

2004-11-06 - 8:07 p.m.
Ah... it is so interesting and different here.
So last week was Halloween. We have 3 kids. I'm used to dressing up in costume, having Criss and the kids dress up, going trick or treating, putting the kids to bed, and then staying up with my wife.
In china, they don't understand trick or treat. So we could not go to the neighborhood for trick or treating. But we did go through the Foreign Teachers Flat. 5 stories and 87 different teachers. Well, we actually only did about 35 teachers.

Why? Well there are many very zealous missionaries here who believe that halloween is ... ... ... heathen(?), or pagan, and are firmly against it (good example of the ferocity, to tell other children they would go to hell if they werent baptized (that was last year from an older couple.))

Ok. So to avoid any issues, I made an announcement that we would be going trick or treating at this time, and we would stop by only if the front windows curtains were open, and the light on. This was to avoid any "showdown" with the highly religious zealots. It worked. The kids had a blast, and most of the people who allowed us to trick or treat SPOILED the kids terribly.

Rae was a "twinkle twinkle star" and then Tinkerbell. Zeb was Peter Pan, and William was a Boy Scout.
The kids made a killing (they should have, they were the only ones trick or treating. Ah the wonderful adoptive 'aunties and uncles' who sugar up my kids and send them back to me...

The other reason I have not written is because of Culture Week. During Culture Week, SIAS celebrates each area's/countries culture. So we had a China day, a south east asia day, a Canada day a Europe Day, and an American Day. Each day was filled with information booths, lectures, food, and displays. it has been very hectic, and long week.

anyways, I have to go, I'll tell more later.

Will