Halloween 2013
Many of my students and friends know that Halloween is my favourite holiday. When I was younger, I used to look forward to Halloween… to be able to dress up as different characters every year and then go out Trick-or-Treating with my cousins! I have never liked celebrations of any kind, but Halloween was special… I suppose it’s because of my personal interest in the paranormal and mystical things that Halloween fascinates me till today.
As many people already know, I have been in America for the past few weeks and I’m glad that I got to spend Halloween in the Halloween Capital of the World, Salem, Massachusetts, this year. The place was packed! There were a lot of different paranormal-related events held, and many people were dressed up for the occasion. Halloween season is so different here in USA compared to Malaysia, the environment makes the occasion very enticing… In fact, I was so excited to celebrate Halloween here in Salem, that I sent back many Halloween greeting cards to my students in Malaysia. They had a variety of unique Halloween card designs that I liked very much… I hope that my students liked them too.
A few days before Halloween, Pastor Jean Ai and Pastor Moh Mei told me of their plans to host our very first haunted Halloween party at Kechara Forest Retreat! I thought it was an excellent idea to celebrate Halloween in the forest and told them that I would like to blog their event for everyone that couldn’t make it on that day to see what they’ve missed hehe
I was told that a group of Kecharians got together to transform Dukkar Apartments (within Kechara Forest Retreat) into a haunted, abandoned dungeon… They prepared all of the food, decoration, activity and invitation in 2.5 days! It was not an easy task, with almost no financial budget for this event, so they had to get really creative to decorate DA! The effort was worth it as, according to those who came, the decor was very, very well done. Our Kechara people are very creative and done everything so well. I was pleasantly surprised.
Although it was such short notice, about 70-80 people came to celebrate Halloween at KFR with amazing costumes! They were all taken on a haunted tour, 10 at a time… followed by a Halloween-themed dinner, designed by our guest chef, Max!
I was very happy to see everyone put the effort to dress up and enjoyed this special evening. I was so excited to see all of the pictures, and wanted to share with everyone how creative the young people at Kechara are! I love my Kecharian people, they can really pull something out of a hat when they are determined to achieve. Do take a look at the pictures below!
Tsem Rinpoche
The Kechara’s Halloween Night poster!
What a creative menu!
In Malaysia, pumpkins are quite rare… So, the Halloween Team used oranges instead hehe.
JP as a dracula (right) and JP’s friend, Sherlyn, came as a female ghost!
Is this a pleasant or spooky conversation?
Looks like many of the Halloween committee members have seen one too many scary movies!
Heart, hand, feet or eyeballs for dinner? Hehe
An RIP site for a baby (doll)!
Ghost scenes projected onto one of the containers in DA.
A scary clown creeping around DA…
A lot of spiderwebs were used as props… this was at the VIP toilet area.
A toilet no one should enter! Do you dare to go in??
Halloween table decorations. The ghost looks neat!
Which one is real and which is the prop… or are they both real??
A big black cobweb at the corner of the room!
I hope that’s not the natural state of DA! hehe
A dead bloodied doll!
Vinnie (left) and Karen (right) pulling apart a doll and eating her up… how dramatic hehe
Fighting over their food!
Annette came as a witch… She decided to take a nap at a grave site!
Sarah (far left), Julia (next to Sarah) and the boys all having a meal together.
Cynthia (right), our creative designer at Kechara, and Wei Theng, out accountant, dressed as zombies!
Clifford (far left), Anne Al Tay (center) and Jean Mei (right) all came dressed ready to scare!
The outdoor decor! How creative.
Beware! A sign for all Halloween-goers!
Finger snacks and more Halloween decorations.
A trick-or-treating bag.
Yurie and Debbie are both based in e-division, the online arm of Kechara! They came dressed as zombies.
William (middle) with a shirt I got for him in the US… “Normal people scare me” hehehe
Oh dear, Wei Theng is eyeing on Debbie’s neck!
The waiting room where guests were invited to sit in groups of 10 for the Haunted Tour.
JP (Board of Director; right) and William (Super Team)
Annette (right) came from KL for Kechara’s Halloween Haunted party! I wonder if Julia came as Angulimala!
Su Ming (Board of Director) together with Wah Ying (left). Wah Ying is Kechara’s Chinese translator and she came dressed as a pirate!
Beatrix with her funny dad Henry Ooi (Board of Director)
Olivier and Peter waiting for the Haunted Tour!
Fei and Audrey waiting too!
The Grim Reaper texting!
(left to right) Carmen, William, Jennifer and Sock Wan!
All seated and ready to begin the Haunted Tour!
Wah Ying and Swee Keong (software engineer at e-division).
Jimmy and Wei Theng!
KB the zombie with Anna Wintour aka Nadia!
How scary…
JP having a laugh.
There were chips & 3 different types of dip!
I wonder how this person ate her chips!
Beatrix announcing the rules & regulations for the Haunted Tour.
Guests going in 10 at a time into the holding room!
Awaiting for the Haunted Tour to begin.
A very big spider took over the dining tables!
Bats all over DA!
Cats too!
More bats along the wall of DA…
A dumping site for babies!
Apparently there were baby cries coming out of the dumping baby site!
A series of ghosts on top of the fridge…
“Don’t wait for the light, Be the Light”… covered in cobwebs!
A burial site…
A UFO and a dementor… the dementor was programmed to fly down towards the crowds of people below.
A wicked witch on the other side of the hall!
Creepy crawlies all around the floor…
A real pumpkin! hehe
More ghosts on the coffee table.
Beng Kooi, Board of Director, whatsapping… even after a very bad brain surgery!
Olivier… came as white as a ghost!
Would you be scared if you saw her in your room…
What about her???
Roasted vegetables for dinner!
Macaroni and cheese!
Halloween chef for the night, Max the Butcher!
I hope that the red stains came from beetroot!
Scooping out soup!
Wei Theng prefers a severed arm!
Debbie goes straight for the heart!
Nadia with her father… I guess that’s how he punishes her when she doesn’t do her homework!!
Dato’ Ruby as a kitty cat with Anna Wintour aka Nadia.
Table decoration…
KB is my personal attendant. Did he go as Super Mario or a zombie???
Eating time!
Three pastors joined in the event… Pastor Jean Ai, Pastor Moh Mei and Pastor Martin. How fun!
Sarah Yap is a writer at Kechara… she came as a geisha zombie!
Karen… you have an arm hanging loose!!!
Jean Mei works in the Ladrang. She came as a butcher clown. Scary!
(left to right) Hanis, Alain Aldaz, Anne Al Tay and Shirley joined in the fun at KFR!
Is Sarah casting a spell to make a cobweb?
The Halloween Night committee! Spot the prop!
Pavara came as Superman!!
Wei stayed back for a few more days to help out before going back to England to study.
Nadia climbing up a web!
Our system architect, Lew, at Kechara getting patted to sleep by hands…
Pictures of the preparations done!
Lots of preparation was done for both the decoration and food!
Hanging and testing of falling props during the Haunted Tour…
Preparing the death scene toilet.
Making big spiders using newspaper and glue!
Hoisting up the spider web.
Laying cob webs onto strings that were strung from one end of DA to another!
Stringing up the strings onto the side of DA.
Making ghosts using cloth, glue and cups!
Designing the props.
Making pumpkins out of balloons and paper mache!
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mortgagecrow.com I cannot thank you enough for the article post.Really thank you! Great….
I cannot thank you enough for the article post.Really thank you! Great….
The Halloween party was great!!!
All of us had to come the day before to come and help set up.
I actually played one of the most “embarrassing” part.
Well because i am totally not “born” an actor and also because Max knocked my head hard on the marble table. So i went back home with a bump on my head. Not something really fantastic.
All the effects from the rest of the people was so loud that even in the ice box i could hear it all!!
I am definitely sure that all the people who came for the tour got scared a big lot!!
Of course i have to say that i had a great time there.
Thank you Rinpoche for allowing me to be an actor in the Halloween party.
This is really fantastic, Kecharian!! I can’t believe the location is in KFR which it was so well decorated into Halloween Mood…Everyone is joining as”scary” as possible, really fun !
It is nice to see the adults and kids are having fun in this first Halloween party in Kfr, some of the costumes and make up really looked scary! Thank you for sharing.
I think that all of the tough nights were all worth it. Although it didn’t turn out as what we have planned, but i’m very happy and excited that the event was a success( at least nothing bad happened ), it was also my first Halloween party :). I’m looking forward to next year’s Halloween party, it will be so much interesting than this year’s. Thank You for sharing Rinpoche.
Dear Rinpoche, I don’t think that we did a good job in decorating the whole Durkar Apartments but I still enjoy it. I was playing the part where I banged and screamed inside the cabin. After the event was over, the crews who acted during the Halloween Tour gathered around and plan how are we going to decorate the whole Durkar Apartments for the next Halloween Tour. I can’t wait for the next Halloween to come!
Darn i missed it as i have a business event to attend. Although Kechara is a Buddhist organization, we are one group of fun people. We infuse Dharma with alot of creativity and fun and it shows that Kecharians are not your ordinary boring souls. Our members work hard and knows how to play hard too. In Kechara, our activites are never boring. Who says being in Dharma has to be boring? Look at how much fun the Kecharians were having for Halloween celebration at Kechara Forest Retreat. So much creativity in setting up the Halloween scene at Dukkar Apartments. What a fun team..Kecharians are fun, Dharma is fun.
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing all the pictures and a short video of Halloween party in Kechara Forest Retreat. It’s amazing to see all the effort, make up and decorations to make Dukkar Apartment turned into haunted dungeon. The short video clip is like a movie trailer we see in cinema. This is terrific! I think we can make a Halloween short movie to attract more new visitors to join for next year Halloween party. Rejoice to all for having successfully put up a Halloween party in Kechara Forest Retreat.
Well done to the team that made it all happen so much effort was put in. I liked the scary clown 🙂
I would say Kechara is the most fun Buddhist Centre. So innovative and interactive! Kudos to the Halloween team for the great job and all for their great costumes & makeup!
Halloween has become a rather imaginative way to teach young kids to desensitize fear by finding out the “truth” behind the spooky beings. That’s a first step of course towards further seeking the truth.
Wow, awesome first and ever Kechara Halloween in Kechara Forest Retreat. Every participants look so enjoy not only the foods but also the atmosphere and the decorations.
Thanks Pastor Jean Ai, Pastor Moh Mei, Jean Mei and the team that make this unforgettable Halloween 2013. May more members and friends include me able to join the Horror Kechara Halloween 2014…
I am still awed by how creative our team is. Despite their tight budget and schedule, they managed to pull it off. Most people won’t know this but the team conceptualised the project just days before Halloween itself. Yes, in just three days they raised funds for the props, promoted and marketed the event, got people signed up to come AND did all of the set-up and testing and rehearsals as well. And it was well worth it! Everyone who attended had a good time and if I doubt others would be able to do as well given the time limit. This was definitely one of my best Halloweens! Kudos to the group, and I look forward to next year!
This looked like such a fun night. I wish i was able to go. I can see that a lot of effort was put into that night, and i can see that everybody had a great time. Thank you for sharing the pictures Rinpoche and the video Rinpoche. I enjoyed seeing them
wow, i wish i was there on the night but i wasn’t, instead i came to KFR a day after and it was still so cool but it would have been cooler if i was actually in the tour there when everything was still active. anyways i hope everybody had a great time. thank you for sharing Rinpoche
The Halloween night was so much fun. Thank you so much Pastor Moh Mei and Pastor Jean Ai for organising the event. It is so much fun. I really enjoyed everything. The looks of Dukkar Apartments was really scary. I was so scared after the event while walking around in Dukkar Apartments in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping. It was just so scary and creepy.
This is the perfect location to hold a halloween party. Deep in the forest, the darkest creatures can lurk! I hope that Kechara would do this again next year as I was unable to attend this year : ( This is a great and fun activity.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the scary night with a well decorated atmosphere. Didn’t know who managed to turn the whole Dukkar Apartment in to a haunted mansion. The part that crack me up is when scary dressed up people is busying working on the phones, what a techno savy ghosts. They are not putting aside of their work even they are having an eventful fun night. Thank you for those who are organizing this and put in much effort and hard work to decorate the place. Good job. Hope to join such an event the following year.
Thanks Rinpoche for the sharing.
Halloween is something that i am not familiar with. But through this sharing i found that it is actually interesting.
Hope that next year i will be able to participate.
Hey Wylfred,
Me too. I missed it. It’s a western celebration of kids putting on costume and going out trick and treating. Meaning the kids collect sweats and treats from neighbors. Adults on the other hand just have costume parties like these ones. Popular costumes usually feature scary ghosts, ghouls, vampires warlocks and witches. However, people do dress us as other things like superheroes. It is very big in Japan too because they are into cosplay there.
What do you wanna come in next year? I wanna be some kinda cool superhero. Dunno what yet. Probably Xmen but dunno if can get a good costume. I saw in Hartamas, they rent out good costumes… HMmm…
What a perfect setting to hold a Halloween party, right in the middle of the forest! Where things go bump in the night! With a tight budget, the team had managed to create the right ambience to Dukkar Apartments. Well done everyone. Hope there wasn’t any bodies left behind!!