I grew up in a country that never
celebrated Halloween season. Lately in the last four years, Tonga is beginning
to adopt what America does during Halloween by businesses stocking up on
candies and costumes, and children going out of their way to dress for
Halloween. The culture in Tonga is changing rapidly due to western influences.
It is amazing to see these changes
in Tonga especially in a country that has strong religious fundamentalism and tough
cultural belief. The first two years in Tonga were tough because a lot of
religious groups were against demonizing outfits, sexual natured attires, and
witchcraft and wizardry costumes. Some of the businesses in the downtown
district were challenged with some of the Christian groups standing outside
with their banners criticizing these businesses but also condemning people who
are out shopping for Halloween. Although the local businesses and people are
still receiving disapproval from various religious groups in the last two
years, however not as much as the two prior years. Tonga is slowly embracing
change or perhaps religious groups are giving up.
There is this bar in Tonga called
Nauti Ruby owned by two of my best friends. They used to live in Australia, so
their style and influence in Tonga is seen throughout their business
activities. They also had received numerous attacks from religious groups but they
don’t care. According to them, Halloween nights at their bar received gigantic
revenue sales and Halloween usually is their third largest bar sales in the
year and the most sold out nights at the door.
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