Facebook Memories reminded me that we did, indeed, have a Halloween party at work just a year ago and I wore a fairly frightening latex zombie mask. One of my students won the best costume award for painting her face as a Día de Muertos-style skull, something dear to my own background.

For 2021, there was no mention at all of ghosts, goblins or get-togethers for our students although Thailand is on the eve of an official (and many say, misguided) reopening. Our long-standing nightly curfew just ended as I write this and I am sure many locals are thankful that this means they can stay at their Halloween parties just a little later even though I believe the alcohol ban doesn’t end until midnight.

My only celebration of the traditional Ghoul’s Night Out was much more muted but we did have a frightfully-themed Conversation Class via Zoom. I was surprised that any of our students dressed up and this left me scrambling for a suitable camera filter. We talked about the background of a few of the traditions associated with the holiday and I gave a brief rundown of the Day of the Dead (occurring on 2 November this year). We tried to show part of the video to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video but the internet was simply too slow.

Having skipped an end-of-the-month wrap-up in September, I had planned on doing one for October but I just am not in the mood. Perhaps some other time…