I love Halloween. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is my favorite holiday. When I was a kid, I loved to make my own costume and go out trick-or-treating with my brother and my friends. As I got older, I transitioned from trick-or-treating to costume parties with my friends, and eating as much candy as I possibly could in one sitting. Today, I'm an English teacher in Japan, and I was so excited to introduce my version of Halloween to my students. However, Halloween is one of the most recently-introduced, foreign holidays in Japan, so the Japanese people are still trying to find ways to celebrate it.
At the beginning of October, I bounced into the classroom, eager to tell my students about the wonders of the best holiday ever. Instead, when I asked them what holiday was in October, they looked at each other in confusion and answered "Sports Day." Makes sense, Sports Day is a holiday in Japan where students get a day off from school, so naturally it would be important to them. But, it took a lot of prompting to get them to remember about Halloween. When I asked how many students liked Halloween, only a few kids raised their hands. I was shocked!
When I asked some of the other teachers why Halloween wasn't as popular in Japan, they told me that it was mostly a holiday for young adults--like myself--to go to parties and drink. So, while many stores in Japan began to roll out Halloween decorations and specialty candies, most people didn't plan to celebrate Halloween in any way. It was my job to introduce the holiday to my students, and boy did I do everything I could.
I picked up no less than twenty costume pieces from the local one hundred yen store and went to work. I played games with the students, taught them Halloween words, even had a pumpkin-decorating contest with my junior high kids. I was surprised that this was one of the few Halloween experiences that many of my kids had.
Halloween in Japan is more about the business-side of the holiday than the holiday itself. Big-box stores and chains produce all kinds of products to help people celebrate Halloween, even though no one actually does things like trick-or-treating or watching scary movies. In Japan, Halloween is cute and fun, not scary. Any proper Halloween celebrations and parties are usually run by foreigners like myself, who want to bring a little bit of home with them.
I look forward to Halloween every year, and living in a country that doesn't celebrate as hard as I do doesn't deter me from that. I'm already planning for next year's classes and parties, and I will definitely think of other ways to introduce Halloween spirit to my village. I also know that, when I eventually return to the States, I will go right back to making my own costumes and celebrating as much as possible. But, for now, I will bring that energy to my home here.
