Our school has never seen such a colorful Halloween!
Most students had never heard of this holiday before. Halloween is not popular in Nepal, nor is it a part of traditional Japanese culture. But our school is a language and culture academy, so we are always looking for opportunities for new celebrations and cultural exchange.
What kind of holiday is Halloween?
Halloween comes from the ancient Celtic holiday Samhain, which was celebrated on October 31. It was believed that on this day, the line between the world of the living and the dead became thin, and spirits could enter the earth. To protect themselves from them, people wore scarecrow costumes and lit fires.
Today, Halloween is a popular holiday in many countries and is associated with costume parties, pumpkin lanterns, and trick-or-treating, where children get sweets by going around to their neighbors. It is celebrated in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, where Halloween is second only to Christmas in popularity.
As you know, our school has been decorated with pumpkins, spiders and ghosts since the beginning of the month. Since CLAY is a school after all, images of monsters and Japanese legends with descriptions and glossaries also hung along the stairs throughout the month.
But on the last day of October, on the 31st, a real Halloween fever started in the art class! The students of the evening classes were happy to help inflate balloons and prepare for the holiday even without being asked - everyone wanted to be a part of the preparations. They knew that not only the celebration but also a costume contest awaited them. However, since Halloween is a new and unfamiliar holiday for many of our students, not all of them dared to come in costume.
How did the contest go?
Under the terms of the contest, everyone had to take a photo in a specially designed photo zone to participate in the competition. The next day, we voted for the best costumes and selected five winners. At first, we were afraid that few people would dare to prepare a costume in advance, but the desire to join the party won out! The teachers also participated by dressing up as different characters.
Two of the brave girls were Kumari Sabina Koirala as the Joker and Thapa Sita as a princess. They won the costume contest.
For the rest of us, we organized a photo contest. On Friday, every student and teacher present had the opportunity to vote for the three best photos in their opinion. Three of them won: Magar Priyanka as a nun, Tamang Sushil as a construction worker, and Kumari Sabina Koirala again as a Joker.
How did we get so many costumes? We used leftovers from previous Halloween celebrations in the children's English class and added a real construction worker's uniform from the school owner's company.
Sensei prepared the promised gifts for all five winners of the costume and photo contest.
Video from the second-year students group:
Video from the first-year students groups:
We also organized a small photo exhibition along the staircase so that everyone could look at the photos, laugh and remember this fun day.
We invite you, our readers, to take a look at the photos we have left as a memento!
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