SASKATOON — Nawid Shirzai has rolled out the welcome mat on his front lawn, giving people the chance to use the Halloween decorations that they set up as photo booth background. You will hardly miss their two-storey house in Hampton Village, as it stands out at the corner of Blakeney Crescent and Steeves Avenue.
Shirzai believes that Halloween should still be celebrated even if we are in the second year of a global pandemic, as long as everyone practices social distancing and other health restrictions implemented by the province and the City.
“There are two big benches that we were supposed to be using but people, because of COVID, they didn’t feel comfortable. So, we did what we could," Shirzai told SASKTODAY in an interview Thursday night.
He has turned his front lawn into a public photo booth, bursting with the colors of fall and the theme of Halloween. A bench is set up on top of several hay bales and surrounded by pumpkins, ghosts, skulls and other scary things associated with the Oct. 31 holiday.
“I didn’t want people to stop or forget about Halloween. Look around, nobody is doing Halloween. I remember being in elementary, I went to [Ecole] St. Peter’s, three-o-clock rings as we walk home, we would go trick-or-treating. We would knock on people’s doors, as we’re going home,” said Shirzai, a photographer and videographer with Mudita Media.
“We say trick-or-treat and they would say, ‘you don’t have your masks’ and we would answer ‘we just wanted candies.’ You know, the feeling of excitement when you were a kid. I think H1N1 happened, and some people stopped and then COVID really stopped things. This is my way of, like, making sure people would still love doing it.”
Hundreds have already taken group photos and selfies in front of the Shirzai’s house, including students from Wahkohtowin School (Confederation Park Community School) and other nearby elementary schools near their neighborhood.
“I remember, my parents being Muslim immigrants, they would also decorate [for Halloween] and even they stopped doing it. A prime example is here, look around and nobody [decorated]. Even last year, some people have pumpkin on their stairs and that’s it. I’m hoping that next year, a lot of people in our block would do this [decorate for Halloween],” said Shirzai.
He said the original plan was the decorations is just for their family but later chose to it open to the public.
“Having Hampton and Westside area people to come here. Before having this, we went into a location to have our photos taken but at that time we’re not yet double vaccinated, so they won’t let us in.”
“Another place has a fee of $20 and one more didn’t look good [decorations]. So, we decided to have our own,” said Shirzai, who added that they bought the bales from a farm about 40 minutes away from the city.
He said that he spent about $600 on decorations for the entire display. The original plan was to have three benches where people can have their photos taken and another area in their backyard where 30 mannequins was supposed to be set up wearing Halloween costumes. “But it just didn’t happen. So, we decided to have these for kids.”
He is now planning a Christmas-themed project to set up after Halloween, that will also act as a community drive to help other families with winter gear. He's already talked to several local businesses that will be making donations of mitts, gloves, toques and socks.
“We will be having a box at the front where we will leave those items for kids and then some of the families can make their own donations. People can come down here and they can drop off stuff or they can take some. Like the [community] library where you can take a book and then leave one,” said Shirzai.
“Being a son of immigrants, not everybody has the funding for winter gear. When winter comes, you need to have new winter gear. So, this will be for Christmas to help other families.”
