HCM CITY — It has been creeping up on this city, and none too surreptitiously.
Halloween celebrations in HCM City have increased in popularity over the last few years and it has become a more elaborate affair each year.
Nowhere is this reflected more than in the costumes that many shops in the city have imported for the revelries this year. The choice is much wider and the products more expensive.
With a week to go for the festival, business is bustling.
Vanel Tuan, director of Lien Huong Ltd Co, said this year the products are more diverse and two to three times higher in quantity than last year. The company used to sell around 10 kinds of masks and costumes, but this year they have 25 kinds of costumes and more than 150 masks.
For the products imported by his company, retail costume prices range from VND60,000-250,000 (US$3-12.5) while masks cost between VND12,000 and VND15,000, Tuan said.
Superman and Spiderman costumes, angel and butterfly wings as well as a collection of monster masks are perennial favourites, and most of these are made in China.
Halloween accessories are sold in souvenir and toy shops. The youngsters can choose and purchase their costumes and accessories including fake fingernails and teeth from www.lienhuong.vn.
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Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31, mainly in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. It is catching on in several other countries including Australia, New Zealand and Viet Nam.
The festival has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday known as All Saints' Day, but has no religious connotations today.
Typical Halloween activities include trick-or-treat, where kids wearing costumes go from door to door in a neighbourhood and are given gifts of candy and other tidbits; costume parties; carving pumkins into jack-o'-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing and visiting haunted attractions. |
Le Thu Huyen, who owns the Chip Chip souvenir shop in District 7, said this masks of famous personalities like Michael Jackson that light up are a big favourite this year. Harry Potter costumes are out of stock, she said.
Apart from costumes and other personal accessories, there are those who want to go the whole hog, as they do in the US, where this festival is celebrated with something akin to religious fervour. There are several products on sale for such people as well, like a coffin from which a human skeleton springs up suddenly. This costs more than VND3 million ($150).
Custom made Halloween costumes are also becoming more popular. Hoang Nhat Nguyen of the Kien Do Ltd Co in District 10 said they have received more than 20 orders from customers aged 14-22.
Depending on the customers' needs, the company offers advice, selects materials and suitable accessories to complete the costume in two to seven days for between VND350,000 and 2 million ($17.50-100).
Holiday choices
Many private firms, public agencies, restaurants and leading hotels are cashing in on the increasing popularity of Halloween. On offer are buffets and Halloween parties with different themes.
Phuong Nga Ltd Co, a business with 10 years of experience in organising Halloween festivals for children through its Funny Land toy shop chain, said it has exciting games and activities on offer this year, like making effigies of the devil and a design contest for the popular cartoon character Casper, the friendly ghost.
The company's festival celebrations are being organised on October 30-31 at one of its stores in District 3, with entrance tickets priced at VND160,000 ($8).
The festival will be celebrated at the Dam Sen Cultural Park as well. Customers dressed in costumes will be offered free entrance tickets
The Tho Ngoc Club in District 3, the Student Cultural House and the Chip Chip store are other places where the festival will be celebrated under different themes. Some of the events will raise funds to help households in the flood-ravaged central region. — VNS