Our first Halloween Trick Or Treat @ Woodlands Woodgrove

Smarties have been going to those commercial Halloween parties for the past few years. To smarties, it is just a dress-up party and having fun collecting sweet treats. Now that they are older and able to understand better, we got to learn more about what Halloween and Trick or Treat is about.

What is Halloween?
Halloween is also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed in a number of countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day.

Experts believe that the spooky festival started in Ireland, where the Celtics celebrated Samhain when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. This Gaelic festival was held after harvest and honored the souls of the dead to prevent bad luck. 

Sounds like how Chinese celebrates the Hungry Ghost Festival in the 7th month of the lunar calendar. The difference between them is that in the Chinese culture, everyone will usually avoid  staying out too late especially children, while in the western culture, everyone will stay out late to collect treats!

Why trick or treat?
In the past, people believed that in order to satisfy the hunger of demons, they would leave little treats outside the household. If the demon was satisfied with the treat, it was believed it would not trick the person or cast an evil spell.

Over the years, it evolved into the present day trick or treat where people would give the children apples or buns and later candy to keep from being tricked.

After a brief lesson on Halloween. We are ready to join our friends for the real trick or treat happening at Woodlands Woodgrove. Smarties were really excited about it and it was their first time going to houses asking for treats. They didn’t dressed up as any scary characters as they were scared of them themselves. So here they are as Iron Man and not-so-white Snow White. Check out the wolf behind them!

We “caught” the wolf in our camera!

Smarties were in shock with the frightening decorations by the owners of the houses. Although in shocked, they still went ahead to get their treats. The owners themselves joined in the fun with their awesome costumes and make-up too!

Look at that! Imagine the effort put in to welcome the little ones?

We were truly amazed by the set up at the different houses.

My not-so-white Snow White was stunned by this lady with pink hair, along came 2 Minni Mouses and asked for a photo taking session. Of course, not-so-white Snow White was happy to take pictures with them.

As time went by, the sky getting darker, smarties were holding onto each other even tighter because the place was getting scarier with the crowd. Along the way, we spotted a very creative umbrella jellyfish and nicely carved out pumpkins.

If you are not the owner of any of these houses, no worries. You can always set up your car and join in to give treats to the little ones.

The further we went, the more interesting the setup of each house was.

As more people came, the crowd at each gate got pretty jammed and squeezy. One of the houses was creative enough to get their children up on the wall throwing sweets to all the children below them.

Smarties had a great time asking for treats at each house and checking out the different costumes that people put on. Look at the treats they have gotten! I think it can last us for a year or two, don’t you think so?

We really appreciate all the efforts made by the generous families living in the Woodgrove estate. Not only do they spend so much on giving treats to the children, but they have also even pooled money to hire first aid, security and apply necessary permits to block off the streets so that visitors to the neighborhood can have a maximum Trick or Treat experience.

When they said: “this is probably the only place you can truly experience a traditional Halloween Trick Or Treat in Singapore”, I raised my 2 arms up with 100% agreement to that. It was really a great experience for all of us.