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Post date: Oct 30, 2015 11:26:19 AM
Having lived in the US for 8 years this is one of their traditions that I found most enjoyable. Halloween is a little unusual, for a festival. Its not even a holiday. Its just a fun
way to spend the evening.
So much creativity goes in to celebrating it. I was a foreigner there, so I could be wrong in my interpretation, but to me it seemed like Halloween was all about coming up
with cool ideas and boldly expressing yourself. The wackier and more unconventional the ideas, the better.
One Halloween I participated in pumpkin carving. Traditionally pumpkins are carved with the evil grin but I had fun carving one with a broom and a star.
Sometimes people protest that we are too eager to ape the west. I think we should have more faith in ourselves and be less insecure. If we want to emphasise out cultural
heritage we could have our kids carve the shapes of diyas or elephants or coconut trees or some other symbols representing India or it's traditions in to the pumpkins. Blend
the best of both worlds. Borrow interesting ideas while we retain our identity. Or we could just let our kids have fun and let lose their creative juices.
I guess we can do the same with Rangolis for Diwali. Instead of getting our kids a store bought template let them use their creativity and come up with their own rangoli
designs that may convey an original idea or their interpretation of Diwali traditions and rituals.
The most popular aspect of Halloween is the costume and there is so much scope for creativity here. Since my husband and I were both physicists when we were in the US,
we used physics based ideas for our costumes. One year I went as Maxwell's demon. Another year we used the couples costume idea of Schrodingers cat, my husband was
Schrodinger and I was the cat, complete with a tail and a poison vile. These costumes may or may not make sense to a lot of you but they delighted us. We love puns and
we love physics and it was our way of expressing ourselves through costumes.
I love that Halloween costumes don't have a narrow theme. Instead they are about making any statement that you want to through your costume. Coming up with an idea
that you want to parade, putting together the costume that abstractly or literally embodies the idea and then wearing it with pride is a wonderful concept. The statement you
make could be a fantastic or political or humorous or educational. The choice is yours.
Another way to enjoy costumes is role playing. For this one day of the year you can lose your inhibitions and really immerse yourself in your favourite fantasy. Do the
make up, wear the costume and live the part.
In the last couple of years, I have noticed that Halloween is getting popular here in India too. Why not? We are the worlds largest democracy. So why not use this day to
express ourselves? What costume brings out your true identity? What do you stand for? Tell everyone in a fun and light hearted way.
Speaking of Halloween, here are some fun reads.
Looking for costume ideas. Check out how Tania and her friends decide on what costumes to wear and how they put them together.
Description: Tania is invited to a costume party. Mama tells her she can go as whatever she likes.
There are so many choices. Tania can't decide. Read on to find out what amazing costume Tania chooses.
and if you are in the mood for a traditional Halloween read with witchcraft and spite try
Description: Tania and Tanisha come across an old spell that brings bad luck.
They decide to use it on a boy who often teases them. They think it is harmless fun,
because we all know spells don't actually work. But then terrible things happen to the poor boy.
Tania feels really guilty. But how did the spell work? Read on to find out.
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