Halloween in Ho Chi Minh

Halloween started at school on Friday, October 30.  The students dressed up in full costumes and were really quite spirited considering Halloween is NOT celebrated in Vietnam, other than mostly expat initiated events and pub crawls (at least that is what my 20 something friends have told me).

Kids dressed up at school.

We had a Halloween themed day at school with games, activities, a haunted house, movie (we watched E.T. in the theater and it was so funny to watch the reaction of the kids to the various scenes - they had never seen the movie before and it was quite a hit!)   The highlight for me was the Halloween themed lunch put together by the cafeteria staff, who are all Vietnamese, and seeing as they do not celebrate this holiday, they had a huge amount of spirit and put in tremendous effort to make the lunch super spooky for the kids!  It was a work of art.

Pumpking soup

Shrimp dumplings and zucchini

Roasted chicken pieces

Ground pork in lettuce wraps, with peanut sauce (in the pumpkin bowl)

Pumpkin soup

I had lunch with Evi and her class on Halloween

The soup at the bottom of this picture had actual chicken feet in it (and I don't mean the drumstick - I mean the claws...)

Mini-pizza happy faces

Beautiful fruit - served with salt...you would think it is sugar, but it is not.  The Vietnamese eat much of their fruit sprinkled with a hot pepper/salt mixture...my theory is that it is to provide necessary electrolytes, due to the constant sweating going on...it's still smoking HOT here.  26 - 32 C on a daily basis...more with the humidity on some days.

David (the gorilla) came for lunch too. 

David and his teacher Mr. Ben

We have a group of 25 Canadian kids this year at CISS (the teachers' kids). Several families are living at the Riverside Residence (including us), so it was the perfect place to organize a trick or treating route for all the kids.  We started off the night at Body by Jovie - a yoga/fitness studio that was hosting a Halloween Zumba party for the kids.  It was great!  The music was fun and the kids were dancing and sweating away!

Starting our night - on the way to the Zumba Party.

Gorilla, black and white picture, butterfly, lumberjack.

It was a happening place when we got there... party in full swing!

Viktor, trying on Mr. Frank's wig...so silly!

Everybody DANCE!

Evi's fancy face painting - done at the Crescent Mall...my beautiful butterfly.

Let the trick or treating begin.

We visited several families and 2 businesses (Body by Jovie, and our downstairs pub Pitchers were giving out candy) 

Little stop at Pitchers - great decor, btw!

Mr. Matt (Viktor's teacher), Ms. Melissa, and Ms. Jenna live several floors below us, and they were one of our favorite stops - their apartment was decked out for the occasion!

Spooky music and lighting!

We found gremlin...

Spooky, but smiling faces!

So much fun!  We trick or treated as a huge group...it was an apartment hopping, trick or treating experience...one of a kind.

A reminder...

Hello Kitty...

The elevators were a little slow...too many cobwebs???

Each stop was a little mini house party, with refreshments and some play time for the kids...I even got served a beverage in a repurposed Nutella jar (truly brilliant)...honestly...no sense in buying glasses...use what you have, makes sense, no?

The kids fell in love with this little puppy, he's too cute!

Halloween in Ho Chi Minh was non-traditional, with a touch of familiar and very festive.  The kids each got to dress up, knocked on doors and took home a small bag of candy (which is more than enough), but it was the experience of spending time with these families and putting our own spin on this holiday, beloved by children for obvious sugary reasons...that made the night so memorable...after all not everyone gets to say that they went trick or treating in Saigon!