Big Halloween in Civic Square
Mr Hiep from Vietnam meets a Halloween character
On Sunday 31 October, my friends and I visited The Big Halloween in Civic Square, Wellington. This is the first time that had I joined such a very surprising occasion. Previously I just heard about this ceremony when I listened to the news but I did not know about the meaning. This celebration of Halloween seemed to be different from the definition in the dictionary which said that “they dress in costumes and go from house to house asking for sweets”.
In fact, participation in the occasion of Halloween was very exciting. We saw a lot of people dressed up in many styles and made up like ghosts or vampires in films. Sometime one family were all dressed up, even small children, and they tried to frighten each other. Apart from this, we visited the performance in a haunted house. My friend and I laughed most of the time during our visit and we took a lot of photos with the ghost actors.
San, from Myanmar, another of my ELTO colleagues found the whole experience horrible but fun.
“When I saw three witches and wizards, I was scared like a kid. While they were looking around and chasing me, I was hiding and firmly holding Tik’s hands. They were trick-or-treating and frightening kids who were also happy. Many young people and kids were dressed up as pirates, spiders, skeletons, vampires, werewolves, pixies, witches, wizards, bats and a black cat. Some wizards told ghost stories and frightening tales to kids. I decided to visit there because I wanted to know whether Halloween is horrible or not. On the way back, I had both feelings of scariness and great fun so I will never forget this horrible Halloween celebration in New Zealand.”
Bounthavy from Laos explained that in his country there is no event like this because they are Buddhist. “So, yesterday was my lucky day,” he said, “ because I had an opportunity to attend Halloween in Wellington. I had never joined an event like this anywhere. When I was in the Halloween place, I found that there were many people wearing strange clothes such as costumes and masks. This event would not be as colourful and atmospheric without the ghosts. There were some ghosts that were very scarey because they played scary music such as violins, drums and they sang songs.
Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31, primarily in the United States, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It has roots in the Christian holiday All Saint’s Day and the Celtic festival of Samhain, but is today largely a secular celebration. During the Halloween period, many families celebrating Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening face.
