Hi all, We would like to know how you celebrate Halloween in your country and which its origin is.
It is not a local celebration here in Uruguay (South America) but it's getting more and more popular because of television mostly. We would like to know if this is also happening in other countries in the world.
Thank you!
Beatriz Chelle
Lycee Francais Jules Supervielle
Montevideo, Uruguay
Hi
My name is Mikee and I live in Alaska. We celebrate Halloween here each year. We dress up in scary costumes and then we go around our neighborhood and knock on peoples doors and say "Trick or Treat" and then they give us candy.
-Mikee
Hi Beatriz & Lycee,
Growing up Halloween was my most favorite holiday and I have nothing but wonderful memories of Halloween. On Halloween night the children dress up in costumes and go from house to house. IF a house has the lights turned off you know that they do not want trick-or-treaters to come to their house. The children say "Trick or treat!" and the people put a treat (usually candy) in their bag. Children usually stop trick-or-treating by seventh grade.
A lot of people are now trying to make something evil out of Halloween and associating it with the devil but I do not feel this way at all. I never thought such things growing up.
Now that I am grown and have a child we have a lot of fun. We decorate the house and have a party every year. The neighborhood children and their parents gather for hot dogs and chips and cookies and brownies and treats before we head out into the neighborhood. We leave right at dark. We usually pull a few wagons along in case the children get tired. It is just fun.
If you enter Halloween in a search engine you will pull up all sorts of information on the origins of Halloween..
woodsman@epals.COM
USA
Halloween is fast becoming a huge holiday in the U.S. Money spent on Halloween decorations is increasing by leaps and bounds each year. The main reason being that the first generation of kids to really celebrate a modern Halloween have all grown up, and want to still enjoy the fun--I'm one of them:) Since I'm from Texas, we also have a strong Mexican influence with the holiday Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, which is also celebrated on October 31st.
As far as celebrating goes, there are lots of jack-o-lantern carving contests and costume parties. We live near Austin, Texas, and the Halloween party on Sixth Street there closes down half the city, and is beginning to resemble Mardi Gras in appearance. On Halloween night my husband and I pass out candy to a steady stream of costumed trick-or-treaters. We have so many we have to begin stocking up on candy a month in advance! All in all, it's great fun.
Happy Halloween!
S. Mauser
Here in Canada, Halloween has been very commercialized. Stores begin to sell for the holiday over a month before its arrival. It was often traditional to make and design your own costume, now the norm is to purchase pre-made costumes. The children dress up and go trick or treating from house to house as it begins to get dark. Saftey has been a major issue here. Costumes are designed to be safer. Emphasize is out into our program at school about saftey and strangers. It is traditional to carve jack-o-lanterns, stuff scarecrows and to decorate your front lawn with scary figures. Cowebs strung from the trees, scary music played from the doorstop. Several community parties may be thrown, often haunted houses are set up a week before to visit. I hope this gives you an idea.
Hello,
Halloween has reached Switzerland too. Many towns and villages started holding their own celebrations of it, based on the American Halloween. As you mention, this came first from t.v. Now you see merchandise in stores and special events all over the place.
Our town, in the French-speaking part, will hold an organized trick-or-treating event on November 4. It'll be the 3rd year in a row. Before that, there was nothing at all. So you see how recent the custom is.
We receive a sign-up for our kids in our mailbox. On it, it is also mentioned to put out a jack-o-lantern or a picture of a pumpkin if you don't mind kids coming to your door, . The kids who sign up are put in groups of about 6. We meet just before dark (which by the end of October is already 5:30 p.m.) when you can still see so that the groups can be formed and the routes assigned. It's very organized. My kids, who have been trick-or-treating in the States where I'm from, find it way too much so!. But there are advantages. For instance, kids only stop at the houses on their route so families don't get visited by the whole village. Also, an adult is along with each group. And the biggest advantage is that we all meet at the school afterwards for a Halloween feast with pumpkin soup and pumpkin pie and lots of other goodies.
This year, by popular demand, the organizers have changed the saying used instead of trick-or-treat. It used to be 'des sucreries ou la vie' (give us candy or your life!) which shocked some people not yet familiar with Halloween. This year, it'll be 'des sucreries ou on crie' (give us candy or we scream). I really found that cute!
Last year in our town's newsletter there was a forum about Halloween. A group was against it because of its pagan origins. But another group (the organizing moms) wrote encouraging people to see it as a chance for kids to dress up and have a fun celebration. It's true, they love it. In cantons which are predominantly Catholic, I don't think Halloween will take hold because they have a big tradition of Carnaval (Mardi Gras) just before Lent. This would be Valais, Lucerne and Tessin for instance. They may not want two celebrations with costumes per year. Our canton, Vaud, doesn't celebrate Carnaval so naturally we've adopted Halloween quickly.
Does Uruguay celebrate Carnaval? By the way, my son Alex writes to a boy from your school (Mario)! Please tell him hello! Alex is sorry he hasn't written for a while but we're haven't started up our Swiss Friends club yet this school year. Best regards
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