Expats celebrate Halloween the American way

Residents who do not celebrate the children's holiday in their home countries are picking up the habit in the UAE.

ABU DHABI // Expatriate parents are setting aside their native traditions of harvest festivals and candlelight vigils for a more American interpretation of Halloween.

Some are dressing their children as princesses, and buying spider balloons and skull-shaped sweets for them.

Sonali Chitnis, an Indian mother of three, says celebrating the macabre still does not make sense despite having marked five Halloweens in the capital.

“Even though I’d been familiar with Halloween for years before I moved to Abu Dhabi, it still strikes me as odd. Why would you want to be scary like this?” said Ms Chitnis, whose son will wear a Spider-Man costume.

She says she indulges in the Halloween preparations mostly for her children and the school events that they are involved in. Her children, pupils at the Indian International School, will take part in a trick-or-treat event.

“I guess if I were to compare it, Halloween is our equivalent of Pitru,” said Ms Chitnis. “We have a different tradition of honouring the dead, our ancestors and paying respect to them. It’s different but that’s the only thing that comes close to it.”

Pitru Paksha is a two-week period when Hindus pay homage to their dead ancestors by leaving various offerings of food, typically served on banana leaves.

Lebanese expatriate Mira Zakharia said she did not care about Halloween before the birth of her son last year. “We want to dress him up because we think it will be cute, so now we are trying to find something that will fit him,” she said as she looked at Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse costumes at a shop in Al Wahda Mall

Ms Zakharia says Halloween is new to her, but during her youth in Lebanon, she and her family would celebrate Eid Al Burbara, or Saint Barbara’s Day, in a similar fashion.

As a child, she would wear a costume for trick-or-treat outings. But instead of candy, children received money and a traditional dessert made of anise, pomegranates, wheat grains and sugar.

“It’s different because our costumes were homemade, but in a way it’s similar. It’s fun and all, but I like our version because it has deeper meaning,” said Ms Zakharia.

For Saint Barbara’s Day, children wore costumes to remember Saint Barbara’s use of disguises to elude the Roman soldiers who were persecuting her.

Jostein Eriksen, a Norwegian pilot with Etihad Airways, said Norway marked Halloween the same as people do in Abu Dhabi, but with a twist.

Last year, he wore a mask similar to that of the serial killer in the 1996 film Scream.

“I suppose it wasn’t the scary movie that I dressed up as, but more the painting that inspired the mask,” said the father of two.

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is renowned for painting The Scream.

In Norway, it is traditional to hold candlelight vigils on All Hallow’s Eve.

“Oddly enough it isn’t as popular as you’d think,” said Mr Eriksen. “Halloween is a new thing for Norway, but the kids enjoy it and so do we.”

This year, his daughter is dressing as a cat ballerina and his son as a firefighter.