It’s Halloween celebration too

THANE: Even as the city gears up to celebrate Diwali, children have also planned to host Halloween get-togethers.

Many youngsters in the city are merging the two celebrations.

Halloween is celebrated in western countries but it is catching up in India.

Halloween, which falls on October 31, dates back to European tradition where people wear spooky costumes to ward off ghosts.

Many housing societies have organised spooky games and parties with Halloween-theme décor.

“After our Diwali rituals, we youngsters plan to decorate our society club house as a haunted house and have collected items based on the theme of various horror movies. We will have quiz and competitions related to the movies for entertainment,” said Sharayu Sawant, 22, resident of Vijay Gardens, Kavesar. Many are celebrating for fun. “Children get bored during vacations. To keep them busy in activities, we parents decided to host a Halloween-themed get-together,” said Charuta Malgi, 34, resident of Soham Gardens, Manpada.

“We have do-it-yourself activities that will keep them busy. We have given them pumpkins and childrenfriendly knives and asked them to make carvings on them. We will help them. We will then place a candle inside it and light it up, this can be used as Diwali décor as well,” she added.

Parents will also give children black cloth and paper to make witch hats and robes.

“This will keep them busy during the festive season. After which, they can come up with innovative games to play with the items. This will add to the joy of making it,” said a parent, who said this is one of the ways to keep the children busy.

Moreover, children are enjoying it.

“We have looked up the internet about Halloween. We will make hats and carve pumpkin which will be fun,” said Nitya Mehta, 12.