Halloween in India!

FYI: I WILL POST PHOTOS SOON!
My fellow interns and I decided to have a Halloween party here in India. So, we planned a party and invited over 60 people including our co-workers from CFI, neighbors, and friends from around town. Nobody had any idea what Halloween was, because it is unheard of in India. The funny thing was that everyone wanted to know the significance of Halloween, which is something I don't actually know! The holidays in India are either national holidays, like Independence Day, or religious holidays. So, the fact that Halloween is simply a holiday of fun and nothing else (at least in my experience) was confusing for them. But, we explained it best we could and actually had an awesome party! We were unable to find outfits to dress up in, as we are in a small rural town that doesn't sell any kind of costumes, so we just dressed nicely instead. Our neighbor, Prakash Upte, offered to let us have the party in the house he just built that is currently vacant! It was so kind of him to offer this, so we were very thankful. We decorated the best we could, made pb&j sandwiches and chocolate-covered cookies (two things that don't have here), and served them to all the guests. We also made the traditional Indian chai, and served potato chips and candy. One of the interns mother's actually sent a bag of plastic halloween rings that we distributed to everyone. People were so excited, and everyone wore them! A few of them came up to me at the end of the night asking for more because theirs had either broke or they just wanted more to show people. I thought it was so great, because they are so easily entertained.

Around 50 people ended up coming to the party, and we played pin the tail on the donkey, musical chairs, and danced. These games are actually fun games for everyone here in India, because they don't see most games as only for children. This made it so nice, because everyone participated, and we gave out prizes to all the winners. We actually ended up giving prizes to everyone at the party towards the end, because we had so many! We had bought pens, candy, bindi's, and little ganesha statues for everyone. They put their hands in the bucket and had to close their eyes when choosing their prize (to make it fair, since everyone wanted a ganesha statue).

Anyway, the party was absolutely awesome and everyone had a great time. We danced so so so much, and my legs were so sore the next day! But, I loved it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I love India!