Halloween in Singapore?

You may be wondering if they recognize Halloween here in Singapore and yes, they do. Not quite as much in the stores here as back home but you will find small displays with some costumes, scary props, make-up, etc. Not the three or four huge aisles like you see at Wal-Mart back home, with at least two of those being nothing but candy. The thing that surprised me most was that the kids were encouraged to dress up at school in their costumes. Well, at least at my daughter's school. Not all the schools are that way. One of my co-workers children go to another school and they get to dress up for Hari Rayeh or Deepavali but not Halloween. If the kids didn't wear their costume or at least orange and black they had to wear their school uniform. I remember the days before the teachers and school administrators were afraid of being sued by some parent they "offended" by having a Halloween or Christmas party. Avery went trick-or-treating in the area near her school. There are more houses there with a large percentage of Americans. Most of her friends from school live in that area. I went to pick her up that evening and while I was waiting I saw a bunch of really great costumes. I was also surprised to see a lot of older kids 10+ and not so many little ones like I see back home. Those little babies don't need all that candy anyway...you know it's mom and dad that are going to eat it all! One of my co-workers went to a Halloween party at their complex. He said they didn't really get the candy concept there. When he opened his kids treat bags they had shrimp crackers and a juice box. The only piece of candy was one tiny lollipop. He said they had games for the kids...but no prizes. Candy might have made a nice surprise for the simple kids games. At our complex you could have signed up at the office letting them know that you wanted to participate and pass out candy at Halloween. They compiled a list of the units passing out candy, gave you a sign to put on the door and handed out the lists to the kids and/or their parents that night. Since I had to go pick up Avery I didn't sign-up but I saw a bunch of kids running around...again some of them had some great costumes. I was supposed to go to a Halloween Party the Saturday night before but it didn't work out. I had a costume all ready. I guess I'll save it for next year!