Gear Up for Halloween Day Celebrations: October 31st, 2017

Tips To Stay Safe & Healthy During Halloween

Have A 'Spook-tacular' Halloween Celebration

​Halloween is the perfect occasion to dress up, go out, party and have fun! Ghosts and goblins, witches on broomsticks, pumpkins, candies and spiderwebs-yes! it’s Halloween. Indians are adopting the Halloween Day celebrations, which falls on October 31st every year, into their culture; schools are organizing Halloween Day celebrations and individuals are embracing Valentine’s Day or even New Year which are not prevalent in the Indian culture. There is no harm in adopting Western culture as far as it’s positive and fun.

Halloween Day is celebrated in many countries as a remembrance of the dead, including the saints (also known as the hallow, which explains the reason for the name Halloween Day), martyrs and all the faithful departed. Celebrations include trick-or-treating, attending Halloween costume parties, making jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins, narrating scary stories and watching horror movies.

While the festival started initially as a day dedicated to praying for the dead and a belief existed that on the day of Halloween the boundaries between the world of the living and the dead became blurred, it has now become a festival where kids wear costumes and visit neighbors for ‘trick or treating’.

Trick Or Treating
The trick lies in choosing smart candies to give children during trick or treating. During this time, children go from house to house asking for treats such as candy or warning them of some mischief on the house owner or the property (trick) if no treat is given.

Make a candy bowl of some of the items given below which helps you to feel good when serving and is also healthy for the children.

• Fruit snack made with 100-percent fruit
• Sugar-free gum
• Mini rice cereal treat bars
• Fruit cups
• Mini 100-percent fruit juice boxes
• Low-fat puddings
• Homemade fruit cookies
• Chilled fruit cubes
  
  

Avoid nuts in snacks to enable children with nut allergies too to have a happy Halloween. If you are unsure, distribute non-food gifts such as Halloween pencils, stickers, tattoos, pens and other innovative gifts of your choice. If you are going to give children sweets which seems unattractive but tasty, still the food is going to end up in the bin. Children are initially impressed by the look of a food rather than by its taste. You can make healthy carrot or pineapple puddings and create food art to lure kids. Stuck up in finding solutions to create attractive snack boxes for your child? Tons of ideas are available at the website www.firsteatright.com. 

Teal Pumpkins
Teal-colored pumpkins are in vogue this year which indicate visitors that you have nut-free and non-candy items to offer kids. If children in your community are planning for a jack-o-lantern, keep it a point to never allow small children to carve pumpkins. While children can draw a face with markers, parents can do the cutting part. Try to replace candles with flashlight or glow stick to light the pumpkin. An adult should supervise whatever is done by the kids. They should also help kid place the pumpkin on a sturdy surface away from inflammable objects or curtains. Children should be preached on the dangers of placing the pumpkin on a path or porch where visitors might keep coming and going.

In India, we celebrate the Halloween day mainly for the fun quotient. Kids love roaming around their locality in black-colored costumes, hats, black-painted faces etc. They enjoy spending time with friend making jack-o-lantern pumpkins and trying to scare each other. The adults in the community can distribute sweets (as mentioned above) and candies in the evening to boost the spirits of these kids and also try to involve them in making homemade candies or treats.
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Get out, do something different and have fun dressing up-that’s the whole ideology behind Halloween. Participate in the Halloween magic show happening at Unnati Library, Sarjapur, have a mind-blowing Halloween dinner at The Ritz Carlton, Central Bengaluru or enjoy some thrilling music happening in multiple places across the city that sends chills down your spines.