Halloween economics

Amazed at how Halloween has taken hold in HK. It's become a full-fledged "commercial holiday" (just like Xmas, Valentine, etc) that is not one day but a whole month long in HK. All bars and restaurants put up Halloween deco (not just in Central ones, but also those in SKW in my neighborhood!). All malls have Halloween themed events. And there's weekend parties 2-3 weeks ahead of Oct 31.

It also touches all segments. The expats always had celebrated. And Ocean Park 7 years ago made a big splash that is now an annual money spinner (250 HKD a ticket, fast lane pass is 500 HKD!) that draws in local teens and univ students. Disney since 2 years ago have followed suit with its own Halloween party month.

Then you got the kids (and hence parents that are keen to please) - I was so shocked to see on Friday all kindgerten kids dressing up in costumes. For the whole weekend, my apartment lobby always have a dozen 4-12 yo kids all dressed up, in a wave of orange colored costumes, waiting to go trick or treat (but where?!). In terms of costume, of course one'd expect Harry Potter cloaks, witch hats....but you also got Snow White dresses and Transformer full body-suits with masks! (I really had a problem with the all-purpose Snow White princess dress with little girls...)

But we didnt take Halloween in its entireity in HK though - we dont have bonfire which is supposedly a big part of Halloween (guess not in the West either now?), and we dont really do trick or treat (kind of difficult to do in high rise apartments in HK, which are often guarded by way too many security). We dont do candy apples, and we rarely have real pumpkin carvings (there's lots of plastic ones though) - well, guess the material is less readily available in HK vs US (it used to be turnip carving before Halloween hits the US, but since US has more pumpkin...so the festival is all orange-y now).

Well, I guess creation of yet another commercial holiday in HK is just true to our own DNA, and cant really hurt a weak economy.