My Hallotober Tag: Some Truths and A Lot Of Imagination
Eerie Emily over at thatweirdgirllife.com tagged me to do the Hallotober Tag. Thank you, Emily, for tagging me to do this fun little tag! If it’s not obvious yet, she’s a dear friend! She loves Halloween and October and all things spooky, so if that sounds wonderful to you, you’ll love her blog and definitely, her Hallotober post!
As for me, I’ve loved the horror genre all my life. I don’t remember a time when I’m not into horror movies. Naturally, I love any reason to celebrate spookiness! However, being from Singapore, I don’t know much about Halloween celebration beyond what I’ve “learned” from movies.
I know kids go trick or treating dressed up as cute ghosts or monsters or characters and get CANDY! (I’d love that!) And I’ve watched Trick ‘r Treat, the anthology horror movie which I thought was pretty good! Other than that, what I know/have experienced about Halloween is limited.
Still, I’ll answer the question to the best of my knowledge and imagination!
The Rules
- Thank the person who tagged you and link to their post
- Put the rules at the beginning or after introduction
- Answer the 13 questions
- Tag 13 people to do the tag
- Delete Question 13, add a new number one question of your own
- You are free to use the tag image somewhere in the post
The Questions:
1. What’s your favorite thing about October?
What’s not to love about October? I love the chill in the air, the colorful leaves, and the fun Halloween decorations on people’s lawns, but my favorite thing is having an excuse to keep watching horror movies.
2. Are you a big celebrator of Halloween?
Nope, I lived in Singapore most of my life. We don’t celebrate it. But if I grew up here, I’ll want to celebrate it! It must be festive and fun-creepy for a kid to be out trick-or-treating. I imagine it’ll be chilly, and houses will be lit up and you’ll see kids walking around in their costumes.
Maybe there’s an extra creepy kid in the midst staring at you… And you can’t help wondering if it’s really a kid, or…
Trivia: East Asian “Halloween”
On a side note, in Singapore and parts of eastern and southeast Asia, the 7th month of the Chinese calendar is the “ghost month”. It’s said that during this month, the gates to hell/the spirit world open, and spirits are allowed to roam the earth and visit their loved ones.
There’s a bunch of superstitious things we’re supposed to abide by. For instance, swimming, staying out late, looking over your shoulder when you’re out at night are all discouraged.
I know, it sounds so silly, yet, some adults believe in it. Somehow, their belief makes the whole ghost month thing more “real”.
It’s the best time to gather and tell ghost stories because we aren’t supposed to, and that adds to the creep factor.
Know why we aren’t supposed to tell ghost stories during Ghost Month? Because the ghosts will gather around you to listen to the stories too…
3. What’s your favorite horror movie?
Gosh, I don’t have one. As much as I love horror movies, the stories tend to blend together after a while and I forget which are the ones I loved. Lol. Maybe it’s time to write down whatever I’ve watched.
If I have to choose a favorite of 2020, it’ll be The Invisible Man. It’s thrilling, clever, and well-executed. You won’t regret watching it.
By the way, I wrote about a list of 9 horror movies that I found good, you may want to check it out. I probably should’ve done another list this year!
4. Would you rather a cozy night in watching horrors or a big night out in a costume?
I’ve never worn a costume before, so I’d pick a cozy night at home watching horror movies since it’s literally my favorite thing to do. Preferably with chips and wine. Not sure if they go together but whatever.
5. Which has been your favorite costume to date?
Oops! I’ve never worn costumes… But I’ve always felt that I’ll make a great ghost – think Sadako. Haha! I’m going to imagine my favorite costume.
My favorite costume would probably involve a tattered black gothic dress and with (fake) spiderwebs in messy hair and on my dress. Maybe I’ll put a fake spider on my head too. I’ll be wearing deeply contoured smoky-eyes makeup, with red lipstick. Think blood-red lips on ashy-white face, and a (fake) scar running down one side of my face. Then I’ll walk around keening.
Yes, that sounds about right.
6. Bobbing for apples or pin the hat on the witch?
Pin the hat! I’m pretty self-conscious so you won’t catch me trying to bite bobbing apples.
7. How do you celebrate Halloween?
I feel so bad that I’m attempting this tag though I’ve never celebrated Halloween! My apologies!
Let’s imagine again!
In an ideal world, I’ll begin by making Halloween decorations with Amazon boxes. I’ll put the scariest one by the window to try to spook passersby. Then I’ll carve pumpkins and set one by my door. Right before Halloween, I’ll walk around the neighborhood at twilight to admire the decorations.
I’ll spend Halloween watching a horror movie marathon with Anthony, with snacks and a bottle of wine. If I have friends, maybe we’ll have a campfire, roast marshmallows and sausages (vegetarian for me), drink hot chocolate/wine, and listen to horror stories!
8. What’s your least favorite horror?
There are too many bad horror movies out there, so I’ll assume this question asks about my least favorite horror subgenre. My least favorite horror subgenre is without a doubt, torture horror.
I love watching slashers and people running from violent people, and I can even stand watching body parts and blood splatter all over the place. But I can’t stand watching people being held down and tortured. A little bit is okay but I need the victims to start escaping quickly. Otherwise, torture disturbs me too much. It’s not fun to watch at all.
9. Do you have a favorite trick or treating memory?
Ah, I can’t answer this. So here’s a fictional story from a fictional childhood:
A Trick-or-Treat Story
The year was 1995, I was 9 years old and the leaves were departing from the trees rapidly. Ani, my older sister, and I went trick-or-treating together. We were both dressed as witches because we had gotten a black cat that year!
With our black capes, matching pointy hats, and a basket each, we went down our street, knocking on doors, excitement running through our little bodies.
By the second last house, our baskets were pretty full and we were both grinning under our pointy hats and shivering a little. And then we saw the last house.
It was an old house with a front yard that always seemed a little overgrown. We’ve never seen anyone emerge from that house. Since the light was on in the house and we didn’t want to miss any candy, we took a deep breath and approached the house.
Ani knocked. We waited, giggling nervously.
“Who’s there?” a shrill voice snapped.
“Trick or treat!” we called out, our voices shaking ever so slightly.
We heard shuffling behind the door, then the door creaked opened loudly and slowly, revealing a dimly lit doorway. The house smelled dusty and faintly of cinnamon. Not a bad smell, but it felt… forgotten. A shiver ran up my neck.
I pulled at Ani’s cape. “Let’s go,” I whispered.
“Wait,” the same shrill voice emerged from the shadowy end of the hallway. I thought I could faintly make out the silhouette of a figure, hunched over slightly.
We stood and waited, not sure what to do. Then the hunched figure started to shuffle towards us. I could make out a cape and a hood.
When she got closer, a white wrinkly face peeped out from under it, framed by wispy strands of gray hair. I gasped. Her nose and chin were both sharp and long!
Ani screamed while my legs turned to jelly. She pulled me by my arm and started running with me stumbling behind her, blind with tears.
By the time we got to our front door, we’ve lost most of our Halloween candies. We explained to mom what had happened, and she was perplexed but decided it has to be a misunderstanding.
The next day, we received a basket full of Halloween candies and a note.
“Dear girls, I’m sorry I frightened you so badly. I thought you’d appreciate my little costume, seeing that you were dressed as witches too! No one else came to my door, so I thought I’ll give you all the candies I prepared, to make up for what you lost running away.”
After that, mom made us drop the old lady a visit. She turned out to be a very sweet old woman, but very lonely. We’d make her house our last stop whenever we go trick-or-treating every year after that, and she’d always make us a cup of hot chocolate and give us loads of candy.
End. What do you think?
10. What’s your favorite thing about Halloween?
Naturally, my favorite thing about it is it gives me a great excuse to watch horror movies! I pretty much watch horror movies, listen to ghost stories, or read horror novels year-round (yes, I live and breathe the horror genre), but I’ll take any excuse to get spooked.
11. Scary costume or Silly costume?
Scary costume. Well, if you know me in real life, you’ll know I tend to be serious. Silly costumes will be wasted on me.
12. What’s your favorite Halloween candy?
My favorite candy, Halloween or otherwise, is Snickers. With Snickers, it was love at first bite. Snickers, it is.
13. Candy corn: Do you love it or hate it?
I was prevented from buying it by a monster who said it was all sugar. If it was gummy-like, I’ll probably like it! If it’s like marshmallows, I probably will like it too. But according to the Atlantic…
“Candy corn is terrible. It is waxy, brittle, and hard—yet strangely chalky, with a wiggly kind of flexibility to the mouthfeel, all at the same time.”The Atlantic
I changed my mind, Anth isn’t a monster, Candy corn sounds nasty. :p So, I bet I’ll hate it!
The questions plus my question at #13
1. What’s your favourite thing about October?
2. Are you a big celebrator of Halloween?
3. What’s your favourite horror movie?
4. Would you rather a cosy night in watching horrors or a big night out in a costume?
5. Which has been your most favourite costume to date?
6. Bobbing for apples or pin the hat on the witch?
7. How do you celebrate Halloween?
8. What’s your least favourite horror?
9. Do you have a favourite trick or treating memory?
10. What’s your favourite thing about Halloween?
11. Scary costume or Silly costume?
12. What’s your favourite Halloween candy?
13. Have you ever seen/heard/felt a ghost?
Open tag!
Since I did this tag rather late, I’m doing an open tag, so anyone who feels like attempting the tag, please do it and leave me a comment so I can add your link to the post!
Also I recommend doing this tag because it’s such a nice break from everything that’s happening around me right now!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Hallotober tag. And once again, I apologize for using fiction to answer so many of the questions! Thank you for reading anyway!
Also, if you’re a fan of scary things, you may want to check this post out!
Yay! I’m so happy you did the tag! I loved how you worked in your imagination to fill in some of the answers. I loved your idea for a scary costume (so creepy and creative) and your treat or treat story was so fun and sweet! (But also spooky at times, which I really appreciated!) I also loved hearing about the “ghost month” in east Asian culture. That sounds like such a fun and thrilling time of year! There’s nothing more fun than telling ghost stories- especially if it’s supposed to be off-limits. I did get some chills when you said the ghost would be listening too!
And I’m so torn about candy corn. It’s not my favorite, but I don’t hate it…? My mom loves it and those candy corn pumpkins, so I have a hard time saying they’re disgusting when they make her so happy… They are aesthetically very cute though!
Emily | https://www.thatweirdgirllife.com