All Hallows Eve

Tomorrow is Hallowe'en. Although Hallowe'en is not traditionally celebrated in Brazil or the rest of Latin America (well, at least not the North American version. Many Latin American countries do celebrate a full-fledge Day of the Day, during which families go to the cemetaries with picnics and music to visit with their ancestors. Some will dress up so as to confuse the grim reaper himself), it has grown in popularily considerably in the last few years. One of my neighbours was trying to organize enough of the condominium's residents so that her kids could go trick-or-treating. I easily agreed that I would buy some candy and participate.

Then on Wednesday evening, a sheet of paper inviting residents to participate in the trick-or-treating ritual was pushed under my door. The paper instructed me to respond by email to the organizer (someone other than my neighbour) by 5pm on Thursday to confirm my participation. As work is quite busy these days, I did not get around to sending her an email and figured that I would buy some candy on Saturday, hang the pumpkin picture outside my door on Sunday and wait for the kiddies to arrive. Then last night (Friday), I went over to my neighbour's house to pick up some documents. A few floors down, a ten-year old witch got into the elevator with me. How confusing! No doubt she had another Hallowe'en party to go to. However, as we continued the ride down the elevator, I pulled out the invitation and saw that infact, hallowe'en had been organized for Oct. 29th and not the 31st! So there I was with no pumpkin and no candy. I would apologize to the children of Santa Elena (the condos where I live), however, I did see some very full loot bags, so I think that in the end there was enough candy to go around!