Halloween in the southern hemisphere

Just a quick Halloween post. Despite being in 35 degree heat, and a country that has never heard of Halloween, we managed to cobble together a very respectable Halloween party. Costumes! Trick-or-treating candy! A seance! Two jack'o lanterns, carved by yours truly! If Kimchi were still around, we would have had a black cat as well.


I remember that when I was about seven years old, and my family was living in Australia (another country that doesn't celebrate Halloween), I convinced my neighbourhood friends that we should go trick-or-treating. "What are your Halloween costumes?" I asked them. "Huh? Halloween?" was their innocent response.

I promptly decided that these foolish children simply had uncool parents and had spent years being deprived of the free candy that was waiting for them . The idea that there was no Halloween in Australia never occurred to me. "It's simple," I explained. "You dress up in a funny costume, and go door-to-door saying 'trick or treat.' Then people will give you candy." My friends couldn't believe they'd been missing out on the gravy train all this time, and threw on whatever assortment of sheets, masks, etc, that they had lying around. We set out down the street.

Needless to say, we were met by a series of extremely confused neighbours, and I lost a lot of credibility with the other kids. Now I'm somewhat more grown-up, and therefore I can buy my own candy and pumpkins, and materialize my very own Halloween, no matter what the country.

Costume: Frida Kahlo, in case you couldn't tell. Should've had a paintbrush. I did have a bottle of tequila, which is unfortunately not pictured. (All for the sake of the costume, folks. All for the sake of the costume.)