Wednesday, October 31, 2007

There's no Halloween in Malawi

They've never heard of it. So today, I decided to bring the celebrations to the office. We finished work an hour early and had candy, soft drinks, and a special Halloween cake I brought from the U.S. (from a mix - cheating, I know).

I explained that in the U.S. on this day, children get dressed up in costumes and go to people's houses to ask for candy. I could not say why. My colleagues asked me:
  • "What kind of costumes" - I said "Scary, or silly. The boys like the scary costumes and the girls like to be princesses."
  • "Does everyone celebrate this holiday?" - "I don't think Jehovah's Witnesses observe it."
  • "What are these things in the cake?" - "They're chocolate sprinkles. The orange ones are for pumpkins, which we make lanterns out of, and the black ones are for...bats and witches." (This got some strange looks).
  • "Do you have any more holidays we can celebrate?" - "We can have a party for Thanksgiving next month!"
  • "What do you do for Thanksgiving?" - "Um, we eat. A lot." (It was agreed that this was a holiday worth celebrating).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have they heard of Guy Fawkes' Day (Bonfire Night)? It was probably celebrated by Nyasaland's colonial overlords.

Miriam said...

Good for you spreading Halloween cheer across the world. I have to say that Wednesday is the worst day for Halloween though! Now I have to deal with 26 students on a sugar high trying to sneak candy out of their desks for the next two days!

Anonymous said...

We had a 200% increase over our previous highest number of little monsters. Six! Word of our generosity must be spreading!