Although it originated in ancient times when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off evil, now, it is more an event for both children and adults to dress up in their favourite costume and have some fun with friends and family. It’s also a happy day for kids as it is when they can demand lots of sweets – Trick or Treat!
In Singapore, Halloween is not celebrated until recent years, and our celebration are unlike those in the United States.
Community event in the West
Many are small scale community events and I supposed our American friends would deem them uninteresting.
I didn’t think Singaporeans would give more interest in dressing up for a Halloween costume contest. So I was surprised with the effort people put into for the Halloween Costume Contest at my neighbourhood in the West – Halloween Walk 2019.
I see that a few had made their own costumes (using boxes – like bumblebee), some might have borrowed costumes like a little girl in Snow White costume (so sweet!). Others were gory – with makeup, gory masks and 3-D hair accessories with toy knife (courtesy of the goodie bags that we were given when you got a ticket at $3).
For those who were less keen on the costume segment, we could just go for the walk. That was a great work-out as for an hour, we had to walk or run around to spot the ‘monsters’ and collect goodies. The monsters turned out to be just friendly uncles dishing out tidbits. I supposed there was lack of man-power to play the monsters and also the organisers might not want to scare the residents by dressing up as monsters since it was around the market area with shops and other people dining or shopping 🙂
Night at the Library
For the second year, the National Library Board organised a Halloween event at the National Library Building. I wasn’t aware of the event last year and at that time, it was unlikely that I would be keen. After the community event, I was game to go for the Friday event, as Saturday is a non-working day.
There was horror story telling although I didn’t find the story scary. As this was opened to all, including young children, I supposed the author didn’t want it to be too gory. The fact that the author is a poetry writer and not into the genre of horror could be another reason. There were some harsh critics of the story written, but I feel we couldn’t fault him too much since horror is not his specialty. There were horror films, which were again not too horrifying. As the films were opened to all, I supposed there were some selection restraints.
The night talks and walks were only limited to those age above 15 though as there were so scary element (and some violent scenes in the video clips being shown in the talk). These were quite good and I recommend those who are game for some scare to join this. Entrance is limited and only opened to those who borrowed 4 books in October (for those who did not, you can just borrow the books in the library on that day).
This event was on 25th October and today, 26th October evening – so you are still in time to go for the Saturday one. Have a good scare, starting at 7.30 p.m.
