And I thought I was avoiding Halloween

Well, here's a little confession: I'm not actually any fun at all, because I hate Halloween.  I could give you the list of reasons, but suffice to say, it's not my favorite.  Imagine how happy I was to move to a country where I could just avoid Halloween altogether!  Or so she thought...

Both the English club and the youth group where I volunteer asked me to do presentations on Halloween.  I grouse about Halloween, but actually I was happy to do it because I love sharing cultures.  I sure learned a lot about Halloween (to check out the Wikipedia page on Halloween, click here, it's fascinating!).

Halloween is actually an ancient Celtic holiday that marks the beginning of winter.  They believed that the souls of the dead could come back to earth on that one day of the year and take revenge, so people dressed up in costumes to fool the spirits.  Just one little Halloween fact for you!

I gave a presentation at English Club, but the real fun was last night at youth group.  Two youth groups got together, and we started out by carving pumpkins, which of course they had never done before.  A word about Russian pumpkins: they actually eat them, so they they're much softer and meatier than our pumpkins, not quite so brightly colored, and not totally "pumpkin" shaped.  Nonetheless, we had fun.

Russian pumpkins and tea

Lera, covered in pumpkin guts

Our signature look

Look at these great pumpkins! And Veronika.

Seriously, the goggles were half the party.

After that people grabbed some tea (this is still Russia after all) and I talked about Halloween.  I touched on where the traditions come from, what it looks like in America today, and why many believers choose not to celebrate Halloween.

Andree giving a Bible teaching

Seriously, this guy is fantastic

It's a little strange being in Russia for Halloween, because in America it's so pervasive; everyone, regardless of class, race, or creed, celebrates Halloween.  Here, it's an American novelty.

I think tonight is the last bit of Halloween I'll have to endure this year; there's a party at English Club.  After that, I'm going to start looking forward to digging into camp work and Thanksgiving in Krasnodar with the Hayes family!

Пока ребята (and Happy Halloween), Russian Jane