Halloween was one of my favorite holidays when I lived in the US.  I always looked forward to either dressing up or handing out candy to visiting kids, or doing both.

Halloween would always start with a visit to the store or a local farmers field so that I could purchase a few suitable pumpkins for carving.  Every pumpkin was screaming out a design that suited its particular shape or coloring.  However, my talent at carving pumpkins was never good enough for some of the more challenging designs that true pumpkin artists are capable of doing.

The exception to this of course was a few years ago.  I actually found blue prints and tools for making cool pumpkins. It had templates that you could rub onto the pumpkin and a saw that you could use to cut out the intricate designs.  I ended up making a very cool looking pumpkin that had a skeleton breaking out of it and a few others. 

Then, of course, there was always the fun of eating all of the candy that was left over because you ‘accidentally’ bought too much. Again.

But now that I am living in China, Halloween is not really celebrated here.  Only in a few very small expat communities will you find children dressing up. But even then the kids don’t go door to door.  Instead they go to closed parties where they can get their candy fix.

If kids here tried to go door to door shouting trick or treat while wearing masks and holding out pillow cases, they would be greeted by mostly stunned looks, several people who would be calling the police and maybe a BBQed chicken foot if they were lucky.

And pumpkins? They exist here, but they are all very small.  Too small to really make a cool carving from.

So how did I spend my children’s first Halloween? I spent it on a business trip to Hong Kong. Another place where kids to not trick-or-treat.  But man, do they use it as an excuse to party.  Of course, Hong Kong-ers will use just about any excuse to have a party.

I find myself in a kind of strange holiday-state.  Without the constant sensory input of American holidays I very easily can miss them without notice.  Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Independence Day, etc.. all go by with barely a thought.

On the other side, because I don’t speak or read Chinese, I get very little sensory input about Chinese holidays. So it is very hard for me to work up any kind of enthusiasm over them.  Mostly, Chinese holidays are painful because they are days I have to pay my employees not to work. But being a boss here is a subject for another day.

So it is kind of strange how quickly we lose our attachment to holidays when we don’t have the constant reminders around us. Kind of makes me a little sad. When I have the time to think about it.

Makes me wonder what traditions/holidays my boys will grow up forming attachments too.

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