October 31
October 31 passed without anyone mentioning it was Halloween Day.
Halloween isn't celebrated much in Singapore. Apparently the Woodlands neighbourhood, in the North of the island, is the place to go if you want to do some "real" door to door trick or treating. Other people just put on private events if they choose to. I noticed there was a paid Halloween Party advertised for the Drama Club MsC attends. If I hadn't found something else, the big girls would have done that.
We did our trick or treating the weekend before Halloween. Someone organized a group of families in our complex into a small trick or treating event.
Apparently usually our complex hosts a huge event on Halloween, where all of the BBQ pavilions are decorated by volunteers who then hand out candy to the kids. It sounds like it was a huge party, but the coordinator could not do it this year. Halloween isn't my favorite holiday and our smaller event was enough festivities for me.
We had a loose plan for what everyone was going to be and we took about an hour to quickly throw our costumes together. No need to worry about how to stay warm here while trick or treating; we had the opposite problem - how not to get too hot. MsC was a Egyptian Mummy. She wore a white dress as the base. I ripped up old linen coloured laundry bags to make strips which I wrapped loosely around her arms and body. I couldn't find a black eye liner, but wet black eye shadow worked pretty good for her eyes. MsE knew she wanted to be a Mermicorn (a unicorn with a mermaid tail). She has a fleece blanket in the shape of a mermaid tail, which she wore despite being 30C outside. I had her wear her bathing suit underneath which is covered in rainbow fish in case she got way too hot. A unicorn headband completed the deal. MsI wore the Snow White dress I made for MsC four years ago. It's almost too small, so it's probably her last time wearing it.
We decorated our candy bin with coloured pictures. MsC was learning towards a Egyptian funeral urn (a canopic jar). MsE coloured paper seashells for hers. For MsI we put a paper red apple on her basket.
There were were about 12 groups, each with about 6 families. I was appointed the team leader of our group. Armed with my map I lead us through the complex. I had printed off the map of the complex and drawn our route out in advance. We hardly got lost and didn't ring any wrong people by accident.
If we really squished, we were all able to fit in the lift (elevator) to go up to each house. Some of the houses were quite decorated, with music and all. We decorated our private lobby where the lift lets out our with a spooky Harry Potter theme. Our mirror said "Welcome to Lord Voldemort's Lair. The Chamber of Secrets has been opened." MsE added the skeleton sign below which said, "Ruby, don't be scared. It's just for Halloween" because she was worried that our 3 year old friend might be scared. It interesting to see the Deepvali decorations up in some of the houses instead - lots of pretty lights and candles around.