Sharing Chengdu: Chinese Halloween

The Chinese don't celebrate Halloween, but many of them have lived abroad or heard of the holiday. I taught a lesson which included all the fun aspects of Halloween, as well as the scariness and the decorations. The students were quite interested. They especially loved when I played Halloween Bingo with them. When the student with a bingo would shyly say "Bingo" (a game the Chinese don't play), I would encourage them to shout it out! When they did, I would hand them a Dove chocolate bar, and the rest of the class roared in jealousy. Then I knocked on the door and made them all say "Trick or Treat?" and I brought out a bowl of candy to give them. Then they roared and applauded! It was lots of fun to teach, and good listening practice for the students as I called out the Halloween words I used for the bingo game. I even had a music video of the Monster Mash that a former BYU Teacher had made.

One of the other English teachers in our building hosted a Halloween party and invited the children to come for pumpkin carving, pinatas, and trick-or-treating. We joined in the fun and invited a family we had met who lived for a while in Minnesota.