A Very Bulgarian Halloween

(In Bulgarian) "Miss! Are we going to have Halloween today?!"

Child after child yelled this to me as I entered school today. "Miss! Miss!"

They have no Halloween in this country, but this town has had several Americans in their midst over the years, and THEY have Halloween.

I was prepared. Rosie had shown me where she kept the masks she collected from previous volunteers, and mom and Aunt Kay had brought candy corn and candy pumpkins from the states when they visited. But, as usual, "prepared" is only a misguided concept in this country.

The Halloween celebrations began in my sixth grade class. I brought the masks and the candy, and promptly handed them out. I didn't know how slim the mask selection was until I saw an entire class of Zoros and Batmans looking back at me. One by one they came to the front of the class where I was holding the bag of candy and hollared 'Trick or Treat!,' rolling their "r"s and overpronouncing their vowels in their thick Eastern European accents. One by one they ran back to their seats and tried to eat the treat without having to remove their mouthless masks.

Though it was not organized, it was managble. The next period was fifth grade, and it is safe to say all hell broke loose.

I combined both classes (almost 40 kids all tolled) and gave the limited number of masks to the best-behaved students first. They put them on, I took a photo, they "trick or treated" and I took back the masks. I then called the mediocre-behaved students to the back to go through the same process. Meanwhile, the worst of the students got fed up with waiting and leaked out of the room into the hallway, yelling at me that I was unfair. (I promptly reminded them that in the contract they signed, it clearly stated that those who did not follow the rules would not participate in holiday celebrations.)

By the time I was through with the second group, the students were restless to the point of destruction. In my ideal vision of the day, I had talked about taking the kids "Halloween Carolling" around the halls, but my 40-kid mob scene was not my ideal. The students, however, called me on it and I could not find a decent way to fink out on my promise that would not have resulted in a riot, so I gathered the herd and headed downstairs to the classes of some collegues.

They didn't know what hit them. These 40 kids dressed in masks (and some in homemade costumes) barged into the classrooms and began singing "One little, two little, three little pumpkins..." at the tops of their voices. Once the initial shock and confusion wore off, all of the teachers and students were smiling and enjoying the diversion.

When I could no longer take the noise and mob-i-ness of it all, I herded the kids back up the stairs and penned them in the room, praying for the class to just be over. Finally the bell rang, and I ended the period with a reasonably in-tact classroom and shreds of sanity.

Thus passed my first Bulgarian Halloween...Next year, I will *truly* be prepared.