October 29th was a public holiday in Cambodia – the 20th anniversary of King Sihamoni’s coronation – so the kids were off school. We took advantage of this free day to celebrate Halloween a little early. Halloween is not a well-known occasion in Cambodia, but we celebrated it for the third time this year, and the kids have really grown to enjoy its ghoulish pageantry.
The main activity was the DIY preparation of costumes. This was done on a tight budget and with whatever materials were available – used fabric and old clothing, paints, glue sticks, staplers, cardboard boxes, plastic, toilet paper, and whatever else the kids could get their hands on. They put all their creativity into it and tried to outdo each other in originality and weirdness. Some also invited their friends from school to help out and participate. When the costumes were finished, they paraded them and voted to determine the scariest, the funniest, the cutest, and the most creative ones.
We had a frog princess in Dina and a corpse bride in Micky, while Vandeth and Bunrath dressed up as supervillain Venom. Jules and Dara were pumpkin-clad scarecrows, Olivia and Ilay were female pirates, Raphael was a street gangster, and his sister Naomi turned into the murderous doll from Squid Game.
Here are the winners:
Scariest – Malee as a ghost and Ennio as the Grim Reaper
Funniest – Michael and Elizabeth as Shaun the Sheep twins
Cutest – Jamie as a mummy and his friend Rachana as the vamp
Most creative – Ben as a plague doctor and Danny as a witch
The kids also had fun playing Halloween-themed games like Mummy Wrap, in which players must wrap up their partners with toilet paper to resemble mummies. The mummies must then walk or run to test the strength of the toilet paper wrapping. Malee and Olivia won.
Another game featured a no-hands eating contest with different food items on a platter, including unripe fruit, quail eggs, and other things that are especially difficult to eat without hands or cutlery.
And of course there were drinks and edible treats for everyone, including pumpkin cookies and some slimy, gooey, blood-like jelly.
Here’s wishing everyone a really creepy Halloween!