"Halloween is the day you knock on people?s doors and shout 'Trick or treat' and they give you candy," said six-year-old Shaska at a Halloween party on Friday afternoon in Kemang, South Jakarta.

She had just returned from a trick-or-treat trip, knocking on doors at the Grand Kemang hotel with a pail in her hand. The hotel, which organised the Halloween event, had asked their customers if they wanted to participate, and many did.

Trick-or-treating is one of the timeless traditions that are a part of Halloween. On every October 31, children in costumes go from house to house and ask for treats, such as candy and snacks.

"I like it because it has a cape," she said, fanning it out for The Jakarta Post to see.

Although Halloween is usually only celebrated in the West, it has grown in popularity in Indonesia, thanks in part to the prevalence of international television channels.

Faza, dressed up as a bumblebee, nagged his mother to take him to a Halloween party and asked Shaska to come along.

"He learned about Halloween from TV. It was all over the children?s channel, so I tried to look for any events here and found this," said his mother, Diah Indrasari. "He wanted a robot costume but there were none in the shops."

His bumblebee costume, however, won him second prize in the Best Costume contest. A Dracula impersonator won first prize while a girl dressed as Snow White, and who wouldn?t let go of her father, won third prize. A red devil, a green witch, Spiderman and Superman could not have cared less about the contest, caught up as they were in a game of hide-and-seek.

There were 68 children and teenagers participating in the event, the first one organised by the hotel. Many similar events were held for children and adults throughout Jakarta.

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