As an ordinary Chinese-Malaysian guy who grew up in Malaysia and adheres to Chinese Traditional Culture, I have never celebrated Halloween until this year! Fall 2009, October 31 is my first and the greatest Halloween ever! I would never forget about this day and I'm gonna blog about it!!
As living in Malaysia for the past twenty years, let me tell you guys why Halloween does not work in Malaysia. It's affected by two major factors, Malay and Chinese beliefs. First of all, anything related to unworldly being and spiritual ghosts is a taboo to the Malaysian government. Malaysia is an Islamic country. Neither does homosexual allow in Malaysia too. It's illegal to be gay! (LOL, I saw guys kissing in front of me at my first sight in a Halloween Party in Madison.)
Secondly, ghosts and ghouls are considered as bad luck in Chinese Belief. If you happened to knock someone's door with a Vampire costume, I bet they will call the police and make a report. Also, don't expect to get any candies from them!! Furthermore, Chinese believes that the early birds get the worms. Parents always ask their kids to go to bed earlier. With these reasons, do you think Halloween still can be celebrated in Malaysia? Perhaps next 5-10 years... until we are totally being influenced by western culture!
Another interesting fact is the pumpkins in Malaysia are not big enough to be carved into scary faces. I don't think pumpkin is available for sales all the time. I carved my first pumpkin in my life at the mid of October. It was at Kim's and Andy's house which is located off campus. We had a pumpkin carving party and potluck! Before I carved a pumpkin, I used my friend's Blackberry to go online and search for some scary designs. I carved it with a girl from Costa Rica, Paola. My first pumpkin was not too bad. It took pretty long time though. I gotta shave the tooth of the scary face in order to make it white. That is why it was time consuming.
On October 30, Halloween eve, it's Friday!! My class ended at 11am. I went to the best restaurant on campus, called Dulany, with my classmates for Halloween Buffet. I heard about it the week before Halloween yet I didn't make any reservation. Luckily we went there pretty early and they have some open seats for 3 of us. We paid 9bucks for the Halloween Buffet and I didn't regret to pay for it!! The Halloween Buffet was great and the restaurant setting was worth than what we have paid for. I like the chicken and steak in Dulany. It is definitely better than the Cafeteria! The food and beverage there was purposely designed for Halloween. The eggs were decorated with olives and it looked like eye balls. I had some ghost salad which is made with marshmallow. It was so good and so delicious! The waiters and waitresses dressed up with costumes. I got my picture taken with a ghost who served the food at dessert bar.
Madison, the capital of Wisconsin. I was there for Halloween. Why I end up happened in Madison? Sometime around September, I heard my roommate said Madison is the best place for Halloween Celebration. It's one of the well-known Halloween Celebration spots in the USA. Before Halloween, I wished I could make myself to Madison and enjoy the best Halloween in the USA. (As I'm here for only 6 months.) I'm not American Degree Transfer (ADP) student, so I don't have many country-mates who are in the United States. I met some Malaysians who have friends in Madison and they invited me to Madison together on Friday. I got 15minutes to get ready! It was really in a hurry, wasn't it? My friend, YJ, a Johor girl, who has a car here and she knew that my roommate was gone to Madison since Wednesday. I followed her to Madison with two other Malaysians.
I have had the best Halloween in my life with all Americans. I was the thorn among the roses!! I stayed overnight with my roommate's high-school's friend, Sam, who lives pretty close to State Street. What a great experience as being the thorn among the roses! At first, I felt bad as I was like a homeless who request for a stay in Madison. I thought I would be ignored by them as I am Asian. I was wrong! I met a bunch of awesome guys and everything went well. They were so surprised when they knew that this would be my first Halloween ever!! I received a lot of wishes and that was the way our conversation started. I went to pre-Halloween party with them on Friday night!! We played some drinking games before heading to the house party! Before this, I only knew about Beer Pong as I played it before at my friend's house in Eau Claire. In their house, I learned about Quarters game, Flip cup, and Powerhour. Overall, I did pretty good though. Our team was off the hook and was dominating all the time!! We almost won in every games. We have a slogan or a shout called, "SHIFT". A sudden brainwave was created by one of the players while playing flip cup. They wanted to shift the team player and it became the our slogan for the night! We shouted SHIFT SHIFT SHIFT on our way from one party to another! That was hilarious!
It's the crunch time!! What was I in the Halloween Party? Guess....?
I was a PIMP!!! An Asian PIMP among Americans!!!
Whenever walking along the State Street or on my way hitting the road to house party, people kept looking at me.. greeting to me.. talking to me and so on... People tend to be friendly when they are drunk. Haha...
I forgot to get some golden chains as I have been busy the week before Halloween. I did some shopping with them and I got a clock as my chain! It was a perfect match!
On Halloween night, I went to State Street for Third Eye Blind's (3eb) concert. I went there pretty late at about 11+pm. The State Street was packed like sardines! It was pretty windy though, I didn't feel any cold because of the crowd. The band is awesome!! By joining with Americans, I gotta know a lot of local culture and stuff. I would say I didn't miss anything that I would have supposed to try. I had my first Halloween and it turned out to be a real blast!!
Thanks to Sam and Garrett for letting me to sleep overnight in your house. Thanks for letting me the futon while you guys slept on the floor. It was so touched! I treated the house as my own one as I was the one who "played" the door intercom whenever someone rang the bell. Thanks to Laura, Kate and Meghan for giving me the "first piece of cake" that you guys made. It was so delicious! I had a great time in playing XBOX 360 with Paul, Aaron, Garrett and Phil. Thanks Aaron for hitting the bars together with me... I enjoyed watching the comedy called STELLA!! We have had lots of fun!! I will never forget about all this moment!!
