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Recursion

(56,582 posts) Thu Oct 31, 2013, 11:18 PM Oct 2013

So I was asked to judge the neighborhood Halloween costume contest

I think the Indian parents (none of whom grew up with Halloween; this is entirely a product of western media penetration) had kind of accepted the fact that they don't "get" the holiday, and asked all of us expats on the block to judge the costumes and pumpkin carving for them.

It was interesting. The most popular boy's costume was "a dracula", which was distinct from the next most common costume, "a vampire" (think more of a Nosferatu figure; in particular, they stress the claws more than the fangs... I think this is running in to a similar Indian folk legend.) Also popular was "pirate", about half Jack Sparrow-inspired and half Peter Pan-inspired. (One boy, about three, kept trying to get back to the cookies and would only petulantly and loudly burst out one-word answers to questions after a long pause looking at the cookie table: "What's your name?" "..... AWJUN." "And what are you dressed as?" "..... PIWATE." "Ooh that's scary! What do you want to take back in your ship?" "..... BISCUIT!&quot And we really, really loved the Sikh kid who came as Spiderman with a matching Spidey-turban.

For girls, "princess" was most popular, followed by "witch" (but with a definite Hogwarts flavor), and "kitty". One girl had made a beautiful macaw mask and feathers out of construction paper.

Completely missing? Skeleton, ghost, and devil, which I think of as mainstays.

Then the parents brought out what I could have sworn were watermelons, and I was getting all happy about eating watermelon, but I was deceived: that's just what pumpkins look like here. Interestingly, most of them cut out the bottom of the pumpkin rather than the top, so that the pumpkin rested on the flat open circle created. I may try that next time. But the timing this year worked out well because the 1st is the beginning of Diwali, so these were kind of the first candles of the season.

But still, Halloween in 90 degree weather just isn't quite the same.