Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. As a child, I remember dressing up and having a good time at my church's alternative celebrations, which are usually called "Fall Festivals" or "Fall Carnivals," and they are very much like the carnivals and festivals of Halloween, just without the scary costumes or spooky elements. I had more fun at those carnivals than I ever did trick-or-treating, but over the last couple of years, I've learned to appreciate the holiday in a new way. On the atoll, we have a costume carnival as well as a costume parade at school and plenty of Halloween parties in the classrooms. Since switching over to the education side of the company the year before last, I've really enjoyed being a part of these celebrations with my children. I've even gotten into the spirit of dressing up. It's really fun to see how creative the kids are with their costumes and to watch them show their creations off to their friends. I have always loved arts and crafts, so having an excuse to create Halloween crafts with my kids is a treat too, and I have to admit, there are certain types of candy I love to "try" on this particular very sweet American holiday. This year, I had fun eating "Peeps Ghosts" and "Reeses Peanut Butter Pumpkins."
Even some of the Marshallese have gotten into the spirit since the Americans have been here. A couple of years ago, we brought the 4-H Ebeye Citizenship Club over for the Costume Carnival, provided them with costumes, and taught them about the origins of the holiday in order to share a bit of our unique culture with them. Everyone had a fabulous time that day. The base usually allows a certain number of children from Ebeye to come over on Halloween night as well, just to trick-or-treat. Many times they knock on your door with just a giant garbage bag dressed as themselves, but it's kind of hard to come by costumes on Ebeye since it's not a traditional holiday for them. In fact, many Marshallese are very superstitious and scared of ghosts. I remember when the American Dean of the College of the Marshall Islands where I worked passed away. His home was right across from the school on Guegeegue, and I continued to work there for a couple of years after his death until the satellite campus finally shut down, unable to run effectively and efficiently without the former Dean's direction and tireless work to keep everything going. One day, I asked why the head of campus maintenance didn't move into his home since his was too small for his growing family, and the dean's old apartment was in much better shape, and I was told that no one will go near the dean's place, especially at night. "Why," I asked. "Because sometimes we see his ghost walking up and down the causeway, and we know he still lives in that apartment." This surprised me because the dean, who had lived and worked in the Marshalls most of his life starting out as a Peace Corps volunteer in the outer islands, was beloved and treated like Marshallese royalty upon his death, but they were scared of his spirit after death, of any supernatural occurrences, possibly due to their culture's history as being very involved in black magic and other superstitious beliefs. Because of that, I'm not so sure Halloween is one of their favorite holidays as a whole either. Really only those whose parents work on the base or whose children go to school there have a chance to participate. It's not an American tradition that has been adopted by the culture on any other island that I'm aware of like the western Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter.
For me, the actual day and evening of Halloween was very quiet this year, and I liked it that way. During the rainy, cloudy day, my boyfriend and I relaxed, watched movies, and got our costumes ready for the small party at the Outrigger Bar, the only bar on the island. We had a good time dressing up and catching up with some friends socially, but there was maybe 15-20 people there total throughout the night, and compared to last Halloween at the bar when we had an American Armed Forced Entertainment Services band playing on island, and a couple of friends who had too much to drink and caused a ruckus, it was very, very quiet, and that was good. It was a perfect way to end the month of October on the atoll.
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