Halloween VENEZUELAN Style!

Halloween is a perfect example of how people here in Venezuela do everything over the top!  

The PTA started planning in August for the BIG event.  To kick off the festivities we had a door decoration contest that started early in the month. When I heard that we were having a door decoration contest I thought, "This should be fun...we'll cut some scary monsters out of construction paper and tape them to the door!" Boy was I wrong.  It was not our job to decorate the classroom doors, it was a job for the PARENTS!!!  So basically it is a contest to see which group of parents can out-do the others.

The mothers of my students approached me with an idea.  They wanted to make a bed with a monster coming out from under it. (...and I'm thinking they're going to cut this out of construction paper.)  NO FRIENDS!!!!  They actually hauled in an entire bedroom set! (the funny thing was none of this actually touched the door!)  And it got worse!  Some of the doors were so scary that MANY of the children were scared to even walk in the hallways!!!  

Here are some pictures of the doors...

The day before halloween we had Family Pumpkin Carving.  This was a lot of fun.  All the families brought in a pumpkin and carved it here at school.  There were some SERIOUS pumpkin carvers. Families brought in all sorts of supplies. Huge knives (that the kids were using!), saws, even drills! It was so nice to see all the families working together.

Have I mentioned how the mothers dress here in Venezuela?  Even though they were up to their elbows in pumpkin guts...they were still in their "sexy" outfits!

Here are the finished products!!!

Later in the evening we had a Halloween Carnival.  Apparently it was the talk of the town because over 1,000 people showed up.  There was all sorts of activities. Carnival games, costume contest, a haunted house, a disco party with a live DJ...it was CRAZY!!!

Parents set up their own tables and all the kids went around trick-or-treating!

Here's us teachers having a good time!

Overall it was a fantastic time!  It lasted until 11:00...AND WE HAD SCHOOL THE NEXT DAY!!!!

(The best part of the story is that several of the parents were upset because alcohol was banned this year, (apparently alcohol was sold in the past!) I could only imagine what would have happened if we had alcohol!