By Moeno Uchimura, CWU
As an international student at Central Washington University, USA, I participated in American Halloween events for the first time in October 2018.
Americans prepare well for Halloween. For example, in the season of Halloween, a lot of pumpkins are sold in stores. They buy pumpkins to carve jack-o-lantern, which is a symbol of Halloween. They decorate their houses with these pumpkins in front of the doors. Also they use dolls of ghosts, skeletons, spiders, and witches to create a spooky atmosphere in their gardens. So, when I go around the town, I could see a lot of pumpkins and other ornaments.
There was a pumpkin-carving event at CWU. The campus was decorated with a lot of carved pumpkins. In the stores and dining halls at CWU, there were ornaments such as pumpkins, spiders, mummies and so on.
I thought that American people cherished Halloween more than Japanese because Japanese people enjoy Halloween only on October 31. Conversely, American people enjoyed preparing for Halloween starting a few weeks before Halloween. I have never been so many carved pumpkins in Japan.
Costumes are very important in American Halloween. In order to enjoy Halloween, I went to a store to buy a costume. There was a store that sold only Halloween costumes near the university. So, I went to the store and bought a cape and blood glue. I was very surprised because there were a lot of costumes, masks, toys, ornaments and so on.
I think that, in Japan, people often put on anime character’s costumes, but American people wear costumes of ghosts, vampires, zombies and so on. So, these costumes were very real and scary. Surprisingly, the nail or fingers such as vampires or monsters, or arms were sold, and these goods were very scary.
I wore a black one-piece dress and a cape, also used blood glue on my face.
After the class, wearing my vampire costume, I went to downtown near the university with friends to look at the atmosphere of the town. There were any children wearing costumes and holding baskets. Those children went to the houses and said, “Trick or treat”, and they got sweets. The decorations for each house were very good and scary. Especially, skeletons and ghosts were very real. I also got a lot of sweets
