Halloween Celebrations

In college, I was in both Spain and Chile for Halloween. In both of these countries, the holiday was just beginning to catch on, from Hollywood movies and such. A few people dressed up but it was basically just a night to go out and have fun. Korea is DEFINITELY a different story! My school, as well as others I am familiar with, went all out with Halloween decorations and festivities. Our school was decorated from top to bottom with ghosts, spider webs, witches and pumpkins. There were more things filling the hallways and classrooms than I have ever seen before! It was like going to work in our own haunted house, and the kids were excited about Halloween and talked about it constantly for all of October. We have a small playroom, set up like a playground at McDonalds, that was transformed into a haunted house.

On Halloween, all of the kids dressed up. There were tons of princesses, witches and wizards among others. In the morning, each class carved their own jack-o-lantern, but the pumpkins are different here and it was the best workout I have ever had! The kids got a kick out of watching me try to jam the butcher knife into a rock-hard pumpkin like object. I must say that I am slightly turned off from carving pumpkins now...at least in this country! I think it would have been easier with a chain saw! After that, classes took turns going to the haunted house. There was a teacher dressed up like a dead person and actually looked pretty scary. The kids had to rummage around the playroom, filled with spider webs, bats and scary music to find a treasure box. They each stuck their hand in the box, that was filled with wet noodles, gummy worms and other gross things to find a piece of candy. Some of them were pretty grossed but it was all in good fun. Throughout the day we did different Halloween puzzles and activities.

After all of the classes had visited the haunted house, we all went to the big playroom, like a gym, for Halloween games. First we played pin the nose on the witch and it was so funny watching the kids...and teachers...scramble around blindfolded trying to place the nose. The next game was a pinata, but instead of hitting it with a stick like we do in the states, the kids were each given a bean bag and on the count of three, everyone thew them at the pinata until it broke open. Not a good idea in a closed space! More than one person got hit in the head with flying bean bags and it seemed to be the teachers who were the lucky targets! When the pinata broke open, the room turned into tackle football, and there was a huge pile up of about 50 kids trying to get the candy that fell out of the pinata. Fun fun!

Finally, we played a game where the kids had to try and find the apple. There were four pie pans in a row, with cut up pieces of apple and potatoes, one piece placed on each pie pan. One was an apple and the rest were potatoes. Four students went at a time, and on go, ran up, picked a pie pan, and got on there hands and knees to eat there selected treat. The person who ate the apple won a point for their class. It would have been fun if the lunch ladies hadn't gotten the brilliant idea to mix the apples and potatoes in mayonaise! It was so funny to see the kids faces, some not being able to avoid spitting them right back out. Mayonaise?? At least try yogurt or something a little more appetizing. Needless to say, the teachers couldn't be convinced to take part in this game!

After lunch, the whole school went trick or treating. Teachers stayed in their classrooms with candy, and the students went from room to room for their treats. They had their own version of the trick or treat song that went like this, "Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. Not too big, not too small, just the size of BUUUUUNDANG." Bundang is the city we live in, and the song was pretty cute.

The teachers were all really good sports about dressing up. I borrowed a bright crayola red wig from a friend...it was pretty short hair, and wore devil horns and black clothes. The kids got a kick out of my wig...asking continuously if it was my real hair. It was a wonderful day that I won't soon forget!