Supporting my fav seniors#2 Enjoying Time Together Is Productive

Halloween is growing popular also here in Japan, with more shopping centers and local communities organizing events.

I didn’t mean to copy them, but I have also organized a Halloween party  with my neighbors for the last five years or so. We started this event with the hope that this could be an opportunity for local residents to get to know each other.

 

Participants would visit places like private houses of seniors who would support the event, a residential home for seniors, a flower shop, a bicycle shop, a chocolate shop, a community house, and many more.

Every year, we make up a story (e.g., searching for a “fugitive pumpkin”) and create a map that goes along with it. Children and adults walk around the neighborhood with the map and explore the neighborhood.

 

A dog statue with a red bell pepper (pretending to be the “fugitive pumpkin”) at the entrance of a home for seniors, one of the check points in the walking event.

The staff there would wait for participants with sweets, and the residents would sit next to the dog and wave at children.

A chocolate shop in the neighborhood, another check point in the walking.

The shop doesn’t give out chocolate but sells special Halloween sets, which mothers accompanying children would buy as treats for themselves.

The stairs at my house, the starting point of the walking.

With our motto “no money and no effort,” we decorated the stairs with plastic bottles provided by neighbors.

Lots of men and women of all ages enjoyed making them, such as pouring colored water to the bottles and sticking face parts onto them.

 

I still remember one of the participants, a single mother holding a baby around three months old. She came to us and said, “Even I can join you?” with tears in her eyes.

She had just moved to this area and was watching us from the balcony of her apartment at the corner. The event gave her an opportunity to meet and make friends with other young mothers.

 

Another participant, an older gentleman, usually stays at home because of knee pain. But every year at our Halloween event, he would come over to the event site, saying, “Looking good, looking good,” and watch over children for over two hours. The image of his back with these children has become one of the Halloween symbols in our community.

Different people are involved in the event in various ways. For example, an older lady would donate sweets even though she wouldn’t participate in the walking itself. A former welfare commissioner would go grocery shopping just around when local kids would explore the neighborhood, talking to them and making sure they are safe.

 

As the event grew to nearly 100 participants, it became difficult to manage with just a few of us. But lots of local seniors have taken part in whatever the capacity they could to support the event.

When leaving the event site, these senior participants would thank us because, according to them, “We’re not helping you. We’re just having fun.”

 

We are receiving more and more positive comments such as, “The event is becoming a place to get loosely connected with people and create something small but productive.”

We have never had any big ambition from the beginning, and we still do it because we want to have fun. If it’s not fun anymore, we can stop it anytime. That’s the idea. No pressure.

 

This whole Hallowing thing started when my daughter, who was three years old back then, had too much time to kill. We decided to make a surprise visit to an old gentleman in the neighborhood.

I secretly brought candy, handed it to the gentleman, and asked him to give it to my daughter.

 

But once we started it, this gentleman, who was usually a quiet person, kept talking and serving Japanese snacks like dried squid, brown sugar candy, and chewy rice crackers.

Watching the happy faces of the three-year-old and the senior, I started thinking, “Hmm, maybe so many different connections can be made if we expand this?!”

 

Some of my friends in the neighborhood supported this idea, and we all brought together what we had at home to start the Halloween event.

The circle has been expanding, with more people across generations, from children and parents to seniors, enjoying time together while giving their hands and mouth.

As we connected all generations’ “enjoying time together,” it has developed into a place created by everyone.

I’m not sure if we will have another Halloween party next year, but I sure hope we can have more places like that.

 

Well, I guess we’ll do it next year too….

Because it’s FUN 🤭

Shino Sawaoka

Associate Professor,

Dept. of Health Management,

Tokai University