Halloween

Andrew as the Doctor

Liz as Rocket Raccoon

Happy Halloween from the other side of the world! It is always fun to see how 'international' holidays are celebrated differently around the world.

We are staying with a local family right now doing WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms); basically trading 4-6 hours of work for our meals and accommodations each day. The family we are with right now has two kids and the mom invited us to join them all trick-or-treating. She told us that the concept is relatively new in New Zealand and has only been around for the last 5 years or so.

It is also a little bit different from home since it is the start of spring! No fall decorations, no harvest, no pumpkins. Well, there are fairly little pumpkins, but those are mainly for eating.

The kids went and knocked on every door, unless they had a sign up saying "No Halloween Here" or had their gates locked. At home we knew who still had candy since their porch lights would be on. However, I guess that only works when it gets dark early because it's autumn. Here we were trick-or-treating in broad daylight, which felt a little strange. None of the houses were really decorated either; one family had 'carved' a pumpkin and had it displayed. I use carved loosely here since, instead of what we do at home, they had simply chopped the pumpkin into quarters and displayed it on the table.

We then went back to their house and introduced the family to "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" and "Disney's Halloween Treat", neither of which any of them had seen or heard of before. We also, of course, enjoyed a little bit of chocolate and goodies. Happy Halloween everyone!