Despite not being a popular event in the Philippines, I’ve always had a secret love affair with All Hallow’s Eve. When I was a kid, my mom tried to make our lives less of a bore with our annual family Halloween party. Of course, we always had the most creative costumes:

  • Year 1: She turned me into a vampire with her huge skirt as my cape. And lots and lots of “blood” which was really just lipstick smeared on my face
  •  Year 2: Was my favorite. I was in the hospital with dengue fever for a couple of days, when I got home my costume was already prepared. It was awesome. It was a pair of jeans sewed on to a dressed up cushion with a head on top. It’s kinda difficult to describe, but it ended up looking like a scary humpback was carrying me on his shoulders.
  • Year 3: I was Zorro…because I cut my hair really really short out of rebellion, I got to play a guy for Halloween.
  • Year 4: I was already in high school by this time and I had a 24-inch waist line…so naturally, I got to be Playboy bunny. That’s still the hottest picture I have. hehe.

I think we stopped having Halloween parties after that year. I was in college by then. I had my own social affairs, so I still got to play around with costumes. During my first year, Malate Literary Folio had a Halloween party. My then boyfriend was a Japanese guy with spiky hair. We made him blonde and he became Johnny Bravo. He loved it so much that he actually got his hair permanently colored. That year, I had a head full of snakes and was Medusa. We walked around Taft Avenue and couldn’t get a cab to bring us to the venue.

I still do a lot of dressing up. I actually have sets for some staple roles: cheerleader, schoolgirl, she-devil, 70’s gogo girl. Last year, I did Oogie Boogie for Christmas. This year, I was the Corpse Bride. Kinda shows how much of a Tim Burton fan I am. I also dressed up as Zattana for a friend’s bachelorette party. I invested in pink wig so I can do cosplay when I get bored.

Queen of Halloween…that’s what I wanna be from now on.