Halloween
Now autumn has come, and various holidays are approaching. Again there are occasions for meetings. The next holiday is Halloween.
Halloween is always celebrated on October 31 on the eve of All Saints’ Day. It is not a public holiday. Already in September, and especially from the first days of October, everyone begins to prepare for the holiday. Grocery stores sell pumpkins of all kinds, cakes in the form of coffins, and supermarkets have entire sections dedicated to Halloween goods. Here they sell all kinds of skeletons, costumes of various evil spirits, as well as just carnival costumes.
Kids in America love to dress up as superheroes. In past years, Mark was Spiderman, Ironman, a Ninja, and Captain America and this year he wanted to be a milk carton. I laugh and say that the dairy companies should pay you extra for advertising. At work, they also have themed parties before Halloween. Levy was asked to come to the office in striped clothes all week. And at Valya’s, their department arranged a toga party. You need to appear in Greek attire, at least wrap yourself in a sheet. She doesn’t have small sheets, so we went to the fabric store, bought some white material, and I made her a costume for the party.
For this holiday, people “decorate” their homes with ghosts, witches, skeletons, spiders. In the evenings they glow, move and make all sorts of sounds. One evening we walked around the neighborhood and looked at these preparations. Trees hang cut off rubber heads, ghosts, monsters, stuffed dead people, witches, there are tombstones, lanterns in the form of skulls near the houses. In some houses flying ghosts are projected onto the wall. We go home and suddenly on one of the streets we meet five havelinas. These animals look like small wild boars 90 – 100 cm in size. They walk in small flocks with their babies. During the day they are sleeping, but in the evening and at night they come from the desert straight to the houses to feast on something. Especially often they can be found in these October days, when people lay out pumpkins with carved eyes and mouth near the houses. Havelinas for adults are not very dangerous, the main thing is not to run away from them, but it was still unpleasant to meet them in the dark. We went to the next street, and it turned out to be a dead end (here such streets are called “cul de sac” because of their semicircular shape). We waited for these animals to leave, and then returned home safely.
I don’t really like this afterlife theme. These skeletons, ghosts and tombstones near the houses shocked me at first. My first visit to America also fell on Halloween, but then we celebrated it in Las Vegas, and I did not see how it was celebrated in other places and in general I looked at everything with wide eyes. Las Vegas is a special city, everything was screaming, buzzing, sparkling. There were people in costumes all around, but mostly it was a holiday for older youth. In ordinary cities, this is one of the favorite children’s holidays, and all entertainment is done for children.
On the Friday before Halloween, Valya’s workplaces were decorated at work, dressed in costumes and put sweets for the guests, and then at at the end of the working day, the children of employees in costumes came and walked around the departments, treated themselves to sweets. On Saturday, Mark also went to a party with a boy from his class. This boy’s parents have a Halloween celebration each year. Mark has a friend at school, and they invite friends and relatives. Hire musicians, dress up in costumes. There are always a lot of people, since the yard and the weather allow. The next year they promised to complete the construction of a tennis court and a swimming pool.
On the morning of the 31st, Mark woke up without a wake-up call, happily congratulated us on the holiday. We were even taken aback at first, with what holiday? And he: “How with what? With Halloween!” And then he expressed indignation to Mrs. Lao, a Chinese teacher, that she scheduled a test on the day of the holiday. He went to school in a Ninja costume, because the milk carton costume made it difficult to sit in class. There were many ninjas. Everyone who came in costume got some souvenirs, Halloween stuff in the form of a small rubber pumpkin that smells like a real pumpkin or a rubber bagel that smells like pineapple.
Trick-or-treat.
Well, in the evening the most important action of the celebration unfolded. As soon as dusk falls, the children begin to trick-or-treat (trick-or-treat). The essence of this action is that children in costumes go from house to house and receive sweets. There is a certain etiquette in this walk — go only to houses that are decorated and where there is light. The hosts themselves treat them with sweets or put a container with sweets near the entrance. Traditionally, as soon as the owner opens the door, the children should ask the question: “Trick or treat? (here: trick or treat)”, and the owner should answer what he chooses, but I didn’t really notice to keep this tradition. You can choose a candy that you like, but they take only one at a time, even if no adult is present. It is not customary to approach the same house more than once.
For the evening we invited two couples of our friends with children to walk around the Neighbor Hood. First, they had a small buffet, and then went outside. We didn’t decorate the house much. They hung only a cobweb on the bushes and a small luminous skeleton on the door, and near the door they put a bowl of sweets for visiting children on a painted box. Mark and I covered the box ourselves with paper and painted it. The streets were warm and unusually lively. Everywhere there were children dressed as princesses, cowboys, devils. Many neighbors put tables and chairs outside, sat with wine, treated children to sweets, and adults were offered wine. But we had with us in plastic cups.
Pumpkins in the store
Mark in a potato suit
Before Halloween at Target
Before Halloween at Target
Decorated tree in front of the house
Decoration of the house facades
Decoration of the house facades
Decoration of the house facades
The children collected full bags of sweets, and when they came home, they each dumped their bag and began to look. Mark began to sort out what to keep for himself and what to carry to the coach tomorrow. The fact is that these days children overeat sweets, and candies no longer fit into them. The process of collecting is important to them. Therefore, the dentist, in order to save children’s teeth, takes candies the next day, but you have to go somewhere, take them somewhere. And Mark has a “bring sweets to the coach” promotion in swimming. They give sweets, which are then donated..
In general, I liked the holiday. I even began to treat these skeletons, monsters, monsters and tombstones near the houses with indifference. And I especially liked that here at this time of the year there is great warm weather and you can arrange such a costumed masquerade. Our relatives in Boston say that at this time it is already cold, damp and raining. But they still prepare costumes and gather at one of the neighbors.
No sooner had Halloween been celebrated than preparations began for Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. The advertising industry is in full swing.
