Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween






Halloween originated in Ireland and was brought to North America by Irish immigrants in the 19th century, so it's just been over a hundred years that we Americans have been celebrating it. The most common activity is "trick-or-treating". This is mainly for children up to age of about 12. They dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for treats with the question "Trick or treat?" If no treat is given, the homeowner may have a trick played on them or their property. When I was a kid (or early teen), the most common trick was to TP (toilet paper) their house. This is when you get some rolls of toilet paper and throw them up in their front yard, decorating their trees in a lovely shade of white or pink. :) This usually happens in the cover of darkness. Anyway, I used to love going trick or treating and bringing home a huge bag of candy, one of my favorite foods. haha! Nowadays I still enjoy going to a costume party. Here in Japan, Halloween has been getting bigger and bigger every year since the first time I came here in 1990. In almost every city a costume party can be found. They are usually attended by a mixed crowd of "gaijin" and Japanese. You can see some photos of a few of the parties I've attended here and a couple of me on Halloween day when I was in elementary school back in CA.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Halloween from San Clemente! Hope you got lots of candy! Is Japanese candy tastier than American candy or is it just ALL good?

Christina Wong-Smith

Unknown said...

There are more and more people here in California that are really getting into Halloween decorating. They seem to enjoy this as much as Christmas decorating and it has become a really big thing.

The children now seem to be having more small Halloween parties too rather than traveling around all over the neighborhoods gathering their stash of candies.

Also our church provides a nice Halloween party with Trick or Treating to each classroom, having a contest for best dressed costume, funniest, most creative, etc. and they serve lunch too. It is a fun time for the whole family.

I didn't have much trick or treaters come to my house so have many bags that I now have to eat by myself.

Ann

Mamiko Kodera said...

Everyone put on nice costume!
These costume looks wonderful on you.