Halloween is not typically a Spanish holiday, but as Leo’s teacher says, Spaniards love a party, so they celebrate it here. The focus is on horror and the scary.
Our first goal was to figure out costumes. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Costume selection is not what it is in the States. We spent several days trying to track down where costumes were sold. We tried toy stores, where we found a few packaged costumes and masks. We tried the Bazars in town (like a dollar store); again, a small selection of a few packaged costumes and masks.
We even rode up to the mall to the Eroski store (kind of like Target) where we found the biggest selection. It still wasn’t very big, and the only costumes were zombies, vampires and witches.
Of course our kids did not want to dress up as zombies, vampires or witches. Leo wanted to be a LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) character. He and Todd decided on a Roman soldier. Todd found a huge piece of cardboard at a recycling bin and we made a couple trips to the thrift stores and then began the big project.
Oliver was inspired by a street performer that we saw in Málaga and wanted to be Windy Man. His costume turned out to be quite easy. One trip to the thrift store for a jacket, tie and some wire hangers and a trip to the Bazar for a cheap umbrella.
The next challenge was finding a pumpkin. There are no nearby pumpkin patches. We checked the Mercadillo, but only found one that had a large slice cut out of it. We asked our favorite produce vendor at the Mercadillo, and she promised to bring us a couple the next week, but unfortunately she couldn’t find us any. Then one day on the way home, I decided to stop in at the frutería and saw they had one perfect one sitting in the back room. Success!
Halloween is a big deal at Leo’s school. Weeks before, the kids and parents start making decorations. All the kids dress up and wear their costumes all day. Despite the lack of costume selection in town, the kids all had great costumes, and surprisingly they weren’t all creepy and bloody (although a lot of them were). Many of the costumes had masks and weapons, neither of which are allowed at school in the States. We came down to watch recess and noticed several kids fighting with swords and pretending to shoot people with their toy weapons (again, something that would not be allowed in the States).
The parents also put on a “pasaje de terror.” This is where parents dress up as scary and gruesome characters. The kids walk through a decorated hallway and the parents jump out and scare the kids. We could hear the screams from our apartment. Leo said about 10 of the girls were crying because they were scared. Todd and I really didn’t approve of this part. The kids all brought “lunches” with Halloween treats (mostly cookies and cupcakes), except Leo, his mom didn’t get the memo. I tried to convince him that his popcorn were ghost balls and his red protein jello was a cup of blood. He didn’t buy it.
There was nothing at Oliver’s school. I guess they are too old for Halloween.
A couple of Leo’s friends invited us to “pedir caramelos (ask for treats).”
Trick or treating is still something that is not very common here. Since most people live in apartments that you can’t access without a key, the little trick or treating that happens is at stores, bars and restaurants. Many of the shop owners have no idea what you are talking about, some give candy (some without wrappers) and the ice cream shop gave the kids a little spoonful sample of ice cream.
In town, there is a celebration on Halloween night
Did you notice that nothing starts before 7:30pm and the festivities continue until 1am? Luckily, in Spain the day after Halloween, All Saints Day, is a holiday, and there is no school.
Maybe one of the biggest differences was that it was 80 degrees today. It’s hard to remember a Halloween where we weren’t cold or wet or both.
Adrift in Andalucía 