Happy Halloween or Happy Birthday?

What is the difference between Halloween and Birthdays? 

To our preschoolers, they are one and the same. To introduce a few American traditions, we spent October 31st hollowing out and carving pumpkins with our morning preschool class. We had some adorable confusion when our teachers placed a candle inside a carved pumpkin. 

Upon seeing the candle, sweet Nathan started signing for cake and got the rest of his classmates to sing "happy birthday" with him. While we are proud of them for drawing a connection between candles and birthday parties, we might have to revisit the lesson on the different holidays. 

Whether they thought it was someone's birthday or not, our morning preschool class had a very fun time getting their hands messy with seeds and goop and seeing a silly face appear on their pumpkins. The only disappointment was not eating cake after they sang.