When I was about nine years old, my family moved from a small, rural town in Massachusetts to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. As you might expect, that was quite a culture shock for a young American kid. I\u2019ll probably write a post about my time overseas one of these days. But there\u2019s one aspect of that experience in particular on my mind: Halloween.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Living in a majority-Muslim country comes with unique challenges. Your access to pork products is extremely limited. Alcohol is out of the question. And Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas cannot be celebrated openly in public. Halloween, however, could be celebrated openly! My family often got the impression that Arabs found the whole affair funny. And believe it or not, even in Saudi Arabia, we had trick-or-treating!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dhahran looks and feels like an alien abducted a suburban Arizona town and dropped it in the Middle East. Although the city has continued to evolve over the years, not much has changed in that regard. If you\u2019d like a visual example, someone recorded a liesurely drive through Dhahran\u2019s \u201cMain Camp\u201d area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n