Drawing on Halloween Traditions
Residents at United’s Fish Creek and Garrison Green communities revived their Halloween traditions this week, decorating the communities, dressing up, and taking a stab at pumpkin carving and painting.
The art studios at both communities supplied the pumpkins and paints, letting inspiration guide the final products, which were absolutely gourd-geous.
“We had fun as kids at Halloween,” said Joan Thomson, who moved into Garrison Green a year and a half ago with husband John. “Calgary was a small city then and I dressed up as a ghost with a simple bedsheet and a pillowcase for the candy. We haven’t done Halloween for years, so painting the pumpkin was great fun!”
“I came from Scotland so Halloween wasn’t that special for us,” recalls Grace Brown at Fish Creek. “But I had fun painting my pumpkin into a witch using black and white paint. Very simple really. I really enjoyed being with the others. A real group project.”
“I made the Wicked Witch of the West using black paint,” said Nancy Osadchuk of Fish Creek. “We used to make Jack O’Lanterns for the kids, but we lived in the country in Southern Alberta, so we didn’t do much trick or treating. I’m looking forward to using my pumpkin to make a pumpkin pie.”
The pumpkins will be put on display around the communities, adding a festive touch to the annual Halloween lunches and costumes.
“We couldn’t do our traditional Halloween parties or costume parades, but residents and staff will dress up for lunch on Friday, and we’ll hand out prizes and candy for the best costumes,” said Kim Coulter, Fish Creek program development and creative expressions manager. “For the pumpkin decorating, we put pumpkins on the tables and then suggested residents choose ones that ‘speak’ to them. It was a lot of fun, and even residents who didn’t participate came down to the studio to have a look.”
All in all a spooktacular success!
Photos by United Active Living. Videos by Sherana Productions.
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Talk with one of our active living advisors about life in a United community. They can arrange in-person or virtual tours of our Garrison Green and Fish Creek communities. If you know a friend or family member who could benefit from living in a United community, send them a link to our website or blog, or arrange a future visit. We are happy to help!
To learn more about life at United’s Fish Creek community, watch this short video.
Or, to find out more about life at United’s Garrison Green, watch this short video.
