Halloween in Taiwan was an interesting experience. Even though it didn't have the recognition of the masses, nor the permissible door-to-door candy gathering that normally defines the holiday, it will still go down in our family history as the most involved Halloween ever!
According to my tutor, Halloween products have been creeping onto the store shelves in Taiwan more and more over the past 5 years. Originally mainly made in Taiwan to begin with and then exported, they have recently needed an additional market to deal with surplus. So back over the sea they've come. Eager marketing efforts have gone to work to convince the local people that this is a fun time to buy lots of candy, decorations with scary-faced pumpkins and spiders,
and to dress their little kids up in cute costumes.
I was thrilled when I saw a small section of costumes for little kids at our grocery store and was able to snag Julien an Incredible Hulk costume. Ryley's size wasn't as easy to find and he had a specific "black ghost with red light-up-eyes" request, so his costume I ordered on Amazon Prime and had shipped to his grandma to send in her Oct care package.
Both the boys' bilingual schools hammed up the Halloween celebrations and offered parties on the night of Oct 31. Parents were
Julien's school had had activities all afternoon, including a mini "trick-or-treat" down the row of shops by their school. What I think they did was deliver candy to the shops beforehand and then had the kids in their costumes come ask for it :) That evening from 6:30 to about 8 pm, there was a masked carnival at his school where every student (around 75 total) got to walk down the red-carpeted catwalk with his or her parent to show off the masks they had made, and--as stated on the school flier--to give them confidence and practice in public performance. Afterwards there was a very organized and long-lined carnival game time. Julien loved every minute of it and was bouncing up and down with excitement as he introduced me to all his friends.
Doraemon (Julien's new favorite Japanese cartoon character) made an appearance!
I was able to hang out with Jeff's de mama, whose name I found out is Jackie. Our relationship continues to baby-step forward :)
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Ryley's school also had a carnival where all the classrooms had been decorated for Halloween (done by the parent committee volunteers) and each had games and candy.
The care package from the States ran into some customs issues and didn't make it in time for Ryley to have his costume, but he didn't seem to care in the least.
He was also bouncing around with excitement as he and Ben did the activities!
A classmate lent Ryley a hat for this photo :)
Ben and Ryley ran into our Korean friends who were crashing the party (??)
This is Ryley's tutor Teacher Sandra's classroom.
On 11/08, our care package finally arrived and Ryley tried on his Halloween costume...which is now all set for its grand debut at next year's Halloween!
[Yes, Theo is jumping on bubble wrap in the background. Package day is the greatest!]
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