The Montreal Ward Halloween Party

reverencing ancestors

We are home from the church Halloween Party.

It was a mixture of colouring and cutting activities for kids, pipe cleaners to wrap and twist, Phillipino decorations for the day of the dead, a Halloween spook alley, face-painting and “trunk or treating” out in the parking lot plus a buffet of foods from everyone’s ethnic traditions.

A big hit for Hebe was a maze which was entered through a tunnel and inside of which were dark paths to crawl along.

I noticed that one pre-teen boy was not allowed in.  Apparently he was good at deconstructing the maze into its component parts, so it had to be rebuilt everytime they finally got him out of it.

There was also trunk or treating in the parking lot, a big group picture on the stairs of the church and a closing prayer in the parking lot, done by a man with a large voice.

... decorating the gym ...

... a baby bumble bee hands out candy ...

Costumes were worn by adults and babies.

The prize for the most consistent Halloween characters would have gone to a youthful couple: Peter Pan and his shadow.

The shadow wore a skin tight black costume with a head covering that was also tight and black.

Hebe standing between Peter Pan
and his shadow

She could see out, but we couldn’t see any of her facial features.

She would follow Peter Pan as though she were his shadow. If a person engaged with her, she would become their shadow, but never speaking – which was quite disconcerting, at first, for Hebe, someone mimicking her body motions in silence.

... the parking lot full of car trunks with Halloween sweets ...

I was reminded of Mary Johnson’s memories of good church parties.

If there was lots of running in the halls of the perimeter of the gym, then it was a good party. I checked if this kind of happiness still occurs.

Yes, there were three pirates having a sword fight in one section of the hall.

Someone had gone into the balloon room and kicked all of the balloons into the hall so a lot of fun could be had there.

Hebe's loot

At one point there was just too much going on for Hebe so she laid in the centre of the hall, snow angel like.

Food was being carried from the kitchen to the cultural hall, so watching the children run down the hall and the women at the same time trying to cross them at right angles provided some entertainment.

All in all, a good time was had by all.

Arta