Last year, J wasn't conscious of Fastelavn. This year, days before, he (3Y11M3D) already asked what he would be dressing up as. He wanted me to bring him to the store so that he could choose. I comtemplated spending the money to buy him a real Spiderman costume - equiped with muscles. The only thing that saved me from doing so was my super hectic work schedule, thus I didn't manage to get to the shop.
It is a Danish tradition to celebrate "Fastelavn". On that day, the children will dress up in fancy dress and hit a big wooden barrel full of sweets and other unhealthy stuff until the barrel breaks and all the sweets fall from the barrel. The child who broke the barrel is crowned as "King". It is a day with lots of sweets and super duper sweet "Fastelavn" buns. Not sure what the meaning behind this tradition is, but it is all in the name of fun. As a boring Chinese, I struggled with this idea of "fun" - not at all my idea of fun.
Firstly, it is an extravagant affair and it creates envy in the children as they couldn't help but to compare with one another over who has the most beautiful costume. The fancy dress costume is not cheap. Thus, it is not an easy day for the less well-to-do parents and children I am afraid. Secondly, it overloads the children with sweets and test their insulin production power at such a young age. Thirdly, it teaches the children a rather strange value - that it is ok to gratify the satisfaction of destruction - destroying a brand new wooden barrel in the name of "fun" - ouch! But since it is a Danish tradition, I went along with as positive spirit as I could garner, all the time telling myself not to judge, not to judge.
Nevertheless, refusing to bow to contemporary pressure and spending a bomb, I bought this cheap "Superman" pyjamas from Netto some months ago and saving it for this day to turn it a "Superman" fancy dress costume.
On the day itself (today), after dressing J up, he wasn't too happy with his "Superman" costume, complaining that it wasn't beautiful enough. I had to agree with him. It wasn't fanciful enough. But adding the red bikini gave it just the spark needed to make it looked just a little more Superman-like. And that saved the day.
It was a blessing in disguise. There were 3 kids who showed up wearing the same "Spiderman" fancy dress and 2 "Batman". It turned out that the improvised "Superman" pyjamas wasn't too bad after all. It made J looked unique. J also stopped pestering me to buy him a real fancy dress costume after seeing all too many "Spidermen" and "Batmen". And we saved a bomb :-)
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