Halloween in Japan

In Japan, Halloween is huge, yet a non-event. In other words, Halloween is a great commercial opportunity to sell Halloween themed ice-creams at Baskin Robbins, special Halloween themed cookies at the supermarket, and Halloween decorations everywhere. In that regard, Halloween is much much bigger an event than it is in Australia. However, hardly anybody here seems to have any idea what Halloween is about, except that it includes spooky costumes and pumpkins, and is thus an opportunity, I suppose, to spend money.

Leading up to and immediately after Halloween, most of us AETs ran a number of Halloween themed lessons. As Aussies, none of us care about Halloween much, but it's become a bit of an AET tradition, and it means we can have a lesson that's a fun break away from regular study, and give the kids a bit of background to the holiday a well. I had some great fun making kids dress up in ridiculous costumes, as well as pretending to be various monsters, with English vocab included, of course.

Last weekend most of us also helped out at a special Halloween party for a wide ranging age of kids, from toddlers to Yr. 6s, with more adults around than children. The huge age range made things a little challenging, but we had great fun with a round of trick-or-treating where we were allowed to jump out and scare the kids (hopefully without making them cry!), and there was plenty of "candy" left over for us.

Don't we look wonderful?

As an aside, most people here seem to think that Halloween is a Christian holiday, like Easter and Christmas, and are surprised to learn that a) many Christians consider it evil, and b) it's a complete non-event in Australia.