That’s a wrap on Halloween 2021 – our first Halloween in South Korea. Part of me didn’t know what to expect. Parts of it were about as weird and different as we thought it might be, but we made the most of our first Halloween in Korea, and the kids had a blast.
South Korea, as a whole, doesn’t celebrate Halloween. While certain areas shine a spotlight on Halloween traditions like skeletons, pumpkins, etc., for the most part, it doesn’t exist. It’s the Western influence here that brings Halloween into play, so there was sort of a dichotomy in the month leading up to the holiday. Some places looked like Halloween, others didn’t and, above all else, we knew that there would be no actual trick-or-treating out and about in Pyeongtaek.
Camp Humphreys does celebrate Halloween, but it does so the days prior to Halloween. So, we actually did our kids’ trunk-or-treating on base on Friday, and Ryan took the kids to the Halloween festivities on post on Saturday. From what we hear, Camp Humphreys avoided Halloween activities on Sunday because Monday is a school day. I don’t know how true that is, but the kids did get some Halloween fun.
The kids were very adamant about their costumes this year. Gone are the days I can pick what I want. Spencer wanted to be a character from Among Us (don’t ask me because I literally know nothing about it), Porter wanted to be a BIG dinosaur, and Mieke wanted to be Elsa. Because Halloween costumes here are hard to come by, we ordered about a month ago from Amazon. Ryan just wanted a mask to hand out candy, so in true Korean fashion, we found him a Squid Game mask.
Ryan’s unit put on a trunk-or-treat for the kids of their soldiers, and it was neat because the other units seemed to have the same idea. Some of the trunks were fully decked out, while others were a little more low-key, but it was a fun little taste of home and normalcy in a completely different country. Also, I’m not sure if the soldiers just felt bad for the kids or what, but somehow my kids came home with about 40 pounds of candy.
While Halloween 2020 was one of uncertainty because of COVID, Halloween 2021 was different because it’s in a completely different country. For one night, it seemed like corona masks were off and Halloween masks were on, and it was honestly really fun and refreshing. I’m interested to see how the next years go, as well!
Tell me – what was your Halloween like this year?
