Bewitched, the sitcom about the cute blonde witch who cast spells by wiggling her pert little nose, and her besotted husband Darren, was my first encounter with Halloween and trick or treating. My mum was a huge fan. When Charlie Brown and friends were given only rocks by the unsympathetic adult world, that confirmed my suspicions that this festival wasn’t all that. As for the Great Pumpkin, what was all that about?
I managed to ignore Halloween until my own children developed an as-yet-unexplained fascination for dressing up as evil spirits to extort cash and sweeties from uninformed old people in the neighbourhood. Eliza dressed up as the Grim Reaper when she was five – not in any way disturbing – as a foil to all the sparkly prematurely-sexualised witchy costumes from M&S worn by her classmates. Then I’d get it wrong every year: if I bah-humbugged the night, feral gangs of overexcited children would brave my steep drive to cover my house with graffiti and silly string; if, the following year, I bought armfuls of Halloween fun size bags in preparation, no-one would come. So I’m deeply ambivalent about the whole thing.
Now, I’ve moved to a very family-friendly place in Hong Kong. Discovery Bay, or DB, is known for its relatively relaxed attitude towards Dogs and Babies. Our Lane is home to plenty of dogs and lots and lots of zombie-obsessed children who have decorated their homes with appropriate pumpkin-coloured merch. While I was taking these photos this afternoon, they really seemed to have caught the imagination of a little boy of about four, walking home with his Philippina nanny. “Woah!” he exclaimed on countering a drawing of a pumpkin. “Are you scared?” Nanny nodded dutifully. It’s probably in her contract.
It’s the 24th today and the decs have already been up a week. Goodness only knows how many trick or treat gangs we’re going to encounter on the day. Here’s a selection from just a few of the neighbours’ houses and even their golf carts. (My favourite is the witty zombie Christmas tree). Click each image to see it properly:
