Young people celebrate Halloween by joining the “zombie walk” in Bishkek. Image by Alexey Schatz, October 30, 2013, used with permission.
While debates over the appropriateness of participating in Halloween fun rage [1] in Tajikistan, young people in the neighboring Kyrgyzstan revel in Halloween festivities. The country's most popular blogging platform has published [2] [ru] a map of all venues organizing Halloween festivities in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital. Dozens of people dressed up in zombie costumes took part in the “zombie walk [3]” in central Bishkek. A photo essay published by a Kyrgyzstani blogger shows [4] that schoolchildren too joined in celebrating the holiday by carving pumpkins and improvising costumes.