England seems to want something like the shopping mall Santa or Easter Bunny for Halloween. At the mall in Riverside, in Thurrock, Essex, I saw a booth with tables and chairs set up for something called "Witchy Woo." A few adult attendants were wearing witch hats and one man was dressed as a wizard while dozens of children sat outside the perimeter, waiting for it to open. I didn't take any pictures because I avoid taking pictures of things where I might get people's faces but here's a promotional image I found online:
I noticed so many kids at the malls during the week that I googled to see if there's a holiday around this time in England. It turns out this is "half term," a week in autumn the kids get off from school, similar to Spring Break in the US, or Golden Week in Japan. The fact that this half term week coincides with Halloween explains a lot about the enthusiasm kids have for it.
My sweet tooth is almost completely dead so I can't indulge in Halloween candy. Except I was so excited to see black licorice in one store I bought a couple bags--licorice is completely absent in Japan. I haven't seen any candy corn in England so far, the staple of Halloween in America. It's not available in Japan. I guess it's a lucky thing I don't think I could stomach more than two candy corns if someone held a gun to my head but I guess it would've been nice to see kids enjoying it.
Last night I watched the original Ghostbusters to celebrate Halloween Eve. I guess that would be Hallows Eve Eve. It was the first time watching it since I actually had the experience of wandering the streets of Manhattan and I found it refreshed the film I'd seen a million times since childhood wonderfully. I recognised so places. When Rick Moranis is running around as the Key Master, I recognised the southwest corner of Central Park and the place where the Starbucks is now. It's too bad genre movies aren't shot on location in New York so much anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment