I previously wrote a post about Halloween in India, but it unfortunately got deleted in an amazing display of stupidity on my part.  I don’t remember what I all said, but I’ll give you a brief rundown.

Halloween is not normally celebrated in India, but due to the large amount of expats here, we were fortunate to have both a Halloween party AND trick or treating to go to on Friday.  The lead-up to Halloween was definitely missing, but at least the actual holiday progressed pretty much as it would in the US, making us feel a little less homesick.

On Thursday, a friend and I got together and had our kids paint gourds (no actual pumpkins available), make crafts and decorate cupcakes.  The kids had a great time, and it went a long way toward putting us all in the holiday spirit.

The costumes were a bit of a stress for me, as I had no idea where to get the materials to make them.  Luckily, the kids made it easy by requesting a white tiger and a jaguar costume.  My creativity kicked in and I found that you can do amazing things with an old t-shirt, a needle and thread, some poster paint, and a headband.  The needle and thread were iffy there for a while, as no one seemed to know where I could get them, but luckily the little “provisional store” down the street had a baby food jar full of (used?) needles and wide array of thread, as long as you were happy with either black or white! 🙂 I worked long into the night on Wednesday and Thursday, and think I did pretty well considering.

Youtube taught me how to paint their faces, and I must say that I was quite happy with the results.  Let’s hear it for modern technology!

On the way to the party, we stopped off at Scott’s office so he could see them off.  He was happy to see them, and to show them off to everyone, and they were thrilled with the attention.  Its not every day you see two little wildcats walking through Hitech City!

The party was crowded but fun.  Ender lost his tail early on to the hands of another over-sugared party-goer, and Addie’s ears began to droop after my shoddy sewing job gave way, but they came through it all still looking pretty decent.

Trick or Treating was held at the neighboring colony.  While not very many houses participated, there were just enough for a fun hour and a decent-sized bag of candy.  The kids enjoyed themselves immensely, and the people had a great time watching the little ghouls and goblins carry out their strange expat custom.

All in all, a pretty decent Halloween.  Next year when I’m more settled perhaps I can help make it even better…Haunted House, anyone?