Halloween Party: Reality Check
Every year we would be explained us what Halloween was, how people celebrated it, 'the trick or treat' time the fancy dresses... This normally happened just a few days before October 31st and it would be the English teacher who would explain, once again, how other countries would celebrate Halloween... but what was Halloween?
In Spain, when I was a kid most of us understood Halloween as the typical scene on American films showing a group of kids wearing Halloween costumes (mostly scary ones), going around their neighbourhood knocking on doors and shouting 'trick or treat!'. In most cases, they would leave the neighbour's front door with some sweets. No matter how cool those films looked, we knew we were no American kids and that if we had turned up wearing a fancy dress costume at our neighbours' front door asking for sweets, the outcome would have probably been very different.
Despite the mixed messages coming from school (it's Halloween! sweets! fancy dress!) and the reality (no sweets, no Halloween costume), the years to come would see generations of Spanish kids being repeatedly told about the famous annual holiday. In Spain, however, November 1st is bank holiday. On that day we celebrate the 'Día de Todos los Santos' ('All Saints Day'). Traditionally, many people from all over the country return home to lay flowers on the graves of deceased relatives but I guess now people also use the bank holiday to enjoy a long weekend, going away for a short break or simply spending time with family and friends.
Halloween Today
For the like or dislike of many, Halloween keeps spreading to other countries, bringing with it a variety of scary fancy dresses and films, lots of sweets for kids and parties for adults. Even in Spain you can smell Halloween is around when many shops start to display all sorts of "scary" decorations: spider webs, pumpkins, witch hats...
Nowadays Spanish kids aren't just explained what
Halloween is, they also get to experience it. I must admit that even today, parents wanting their children to go trick or treat-ing make sure they talk to their neighbours first to find out who will be prepared for a Halloween evening (with sweets) to avoid ending up with disappointed kids.
I live in England now and I've heard similar stories in relation to Halloween and how trick or treat-ing wasn't a tradition here before. Despite all, I can see that the American Halloween traditions were introduced in the UK earlier than they were in Spain as they definitely seem more commercially established here.
My Halloween Fancy Dress Party
I guess that it's difficult not to enjoy a good fancy dress party (I love them!) and apart from the Carnival in the Canary Islands where streets are flooded by thousands of people in fancy dress costumes, Halloween seems to me the best excuse to enjoy a good fancy dress party.
There will always be a fancy dress costume on trend, mostly because of popular films out there, but here's a list of must-have Halloween fancy dresses you can wear any year:
So if you celebrate it, what will you be doing this Halloween? ;-)
Picture source: http://www.decorarossa.com/imagenes/2008/10/calabaza-hallowen.jpg
