Dressed up as Spiderman, Superman, horrifying vampires or witches with broomsticks and pointy hats, hundreds of children and their parents demonstrated their spooky spirits as they joined a Halloween party yesterday in front of a department store.
The "Halloween Parent-Children Celebration" event, hosted by Disney Channel and the Taipei City Government, attracted hundreds of families that showed off their creativity with their costumes yesterday, despite the rain.
Deputy Mayor of Taipei Yeh Chin-chuan (
Taking her seven-year-old son to the party, a lady surnamed Chu made her and her son's costumes herself. The pumpkin mask that covered her son's head, Chu said, was shaped by gluing paper towels on a real pumpkin. Her black gown, on the other hand, was made from a simple plastic bag.
"This is our first Halloween party and I think it's great to have the chance to make something by hand and enjoy some family fun like this," she said.
Another mother, surnamed Lin came with her husband and her five-year-old daughter. While her daughter wore a purple princess dress and a shining crown, Lin dressed herself up as a witch with a black gown and purple hair.
The origins of Halloween may not be known by most of the participants, especially the little ones, but having fun with the family in a creative way, as the organizers intended, was what the Halloween party was all about.
According to Celtic folklore, Halloween was the night when the disembodied spirits of those who had died the previous year would come back in search of living bodies to possess. Understandably, the living did not want to be possessed, so on the night of Oct. 31 villagers would dress up in ghoulish costumes and parade around noisily, hoping to frighten away the undead.