I’ve never had to identify the origins of Halloween, justify wearing a costume or explain why we say “trick or treat” until my K
orean students asked me. I’m not sure I know the facts, but thanks to wikipedia and youtube I had something to tell my students. My manager, less interested in the facts and more focused on the opportunity Halloween provided, was more excited than Charly when he found the last golden ticket. My manager is a talented craftsman, but with no reason to utilize his skill (I told him I needed a desk. 30 minutes later i had one). So after discussing the idea for a Halloween party, he spun off making bats, skulls, skeletons, mummies, caskets etc. Everyday, he was fashioning something different from poor-man materials. (Everything you see in pictures, he made from nothing better than styrofoam). It was quite intersting to observe his enthusiasm, but it all cycl
ed back to me via the student’s curiousity and innumerable questions.
By the time we had the party, the school had been completely transformed. I was astonished when 70% of our students arrived in costume. It was so awesome that they embraced the holiday. We played trivia and picture games and of course let them practice saying “Trick or Treat” (a ridiculous amount of times). The main event of the evening was ‘bobbing for apples’, where the kids proved to be truly couragious and sacfriced a sunken wet noggin for a successful bob. I had twenty kids pull an apple out within 30 minutes. My expectations…abundantly exceeded.
