Destination Doha: Carving, Costumes, and Candy

Happy Halloween!!

Let's be honest, Halloween is a bit of weird "holiday..." With origins dating way way back, Halloween is thought to have roots in the Celtic festival Samhain. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the living and dead (worlds) sort of overlapped, allowing the dead to come back to life a create havoc like sickness or the damaging of crops. Large bonfires were built, and people dressed in costumes to mimic and/or appease the evil spirits.. Weird.. And yet, even in Doha... we dressed up and went knocking on doors (marked with pumpkins) bellowing the age old, "trick or treat!"

This was really our first "holiday" in Doha (and it isn't celebrated here) and the kids had a great time. Yesterday, we had a few little friends over for play time, a craft, a snack, and a fun story (Room on the Broom).

M and his pumpkin craft.

Halloween crafty time.

Today, we started the day by carving our pumpkins, it's still in the mid-upper 90s every day, so carving before this would've made for some yucky pumpkins. In the afternoon, went to a party thrown by a couple of the local schools (A's school among them) at our compound's park. The kids did crafts and played with friends (all in costumes) before taking to the streets (of our compound) for some fun trick or treating. We were so exhausted that A had to come back for the car to avoid carrying both kids all the way home.

Some Halloween similarities and differences:

Similarities: We dressed up, carved pumpkins, went to a Halloween party, trick or treated, got WAY too much candy, and the kids are passed out in their beds from all the fun...

Differences: We paid just under $50.00 for two med/small pumpkins! We waited to carve them until the day of because of the heat. There was no pre-planning for weather concerns, except to bring enough water to drink (it was 90 degrees after dark). We had a pot luck at the park and people we all in summer clothing still. There are no "jumbo" bags of candy to buy or major Halloween displays (although we did see a few stores with Halloween items). We have trick or treated for the past several years (since M was born) with our good friends in Ft. Wayne and this was our first year going without them...

So, while for most of Doha, today was any ordinary Friday (remember our weekend is Friday/Saturday), inside our little corner of the world, we enjoyed a bit of normalcy.