Our village is one of the villages in the Philippines that usually participates in Halloween. While it is not a country-wide holiday (like All Saints Day the following day), some areas do have events. This year, Halloween was canceled in our village due to Ondoy. Besides the fact that many houses in the village sustained damage, a squatter area right outside the walls was almost completely decimated. Thus, it was decided that the money usually spent on the Halloween should be spent (and rightly so) on grocery donations for the people who lost their homes.
The kids (who live in Tondo which is one of the areas that does not have Halloween celebrations) had been asking about Halloween for the past few months (since perhaps July) since they had been here last year for the village party and trick-or-treating. There was no way we could just tell them Halloween had been canceled so we instead decided to throw a Halloween party at home.
We did everything fairly traditional with the exception of costumes because we knew the kids would want to swim and it seemed like a waste to have everyone all dressed up just to jump in the pool 20 minutes later. We had swimming, spaghetti for lunch, and a bunch of games. A slew of the kids slept over and they stayed up late into the night watching horror movies. It was a very successful holiday all around and everyone woke up early enough to go to the cemetery for All Saints Day the following day.
Bobbing for apples....
Doughnut on a string game
Our Halloween giveaways were little paper mache pumpkins (which look like eggs due to the fact that I used water balloons instead of normal balloons). We filled them with candy.
3 comments:
That's so cool that all the kids get to do this! I wish there was more of a Halloween in France, it's my favorite holiday. And my, haven't you gone all Martha Stewart! Paper mache pumpkins and everything! :D
I've been reading your blog for over a year and have thoroughly enjoyed your insight. My husband and two sons and I are moving to Ayala-Alabang in the next few weeks. We are moving from Foster City (originally from San Francisco) to the Philippines for a 2 1/2 year assignment...
My husband has been taking very careful note of your burrito recommendations! :)
Best to you and your family. Please keep blogging!
Fawn, your boys will be happy to know that nobody does Halloween like Ayala Alabang. We spent our first Halloween in the Philippines there and I have never in my life seen so many kids (and this includes trick-or-treating myself as a kid in Sea Cliff where there were lines at some of the doors).
I am not sure how many times you have visited here but Alabang (to me) is very different from the rest of the Philippines. I always feel like I am in a microcosm of the US there. Ayala Alabang is actually my favorite village here. Tell your husband to eat as many burritos as he can!! A friend of mine mentioned there is a new Mexican restaurant in ATC but I am not sure what it is called.
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