| Flilix said: Here in Belgium we have 'Allerheiligen' and 'Allerzielen', which are the holidays on the 1st and 2nd of November respectively. They're not really a celebration though, most people just visit the graveyards. Halloween is also a thing that came from America, quite recently I suppose, but I'm too young to remember the time before it was introduced. It's still not really as big of a thing as it seems to be in the US though, you won't find a lot of adults dressing up or people wishing eachother a 'happy Halloween'. Children trick-or-treating is a thing that happens but it isn't big either, just a couple of obnoxious kids (I was one of those kids). The main event of Halloween however, are the walking tours. I don't know to which degree these also exist in other countries, but here you'll find one in every few villages - and they're often attended by hundreds of people. Basically, you sign up at the start, and then you follow the road to the next food stop while people are trying to scare you. I love them. There's something oddly charming about walking through a field on a cold autumn evening, trying to get to the next stop for food and warmth. I like this way of adapting foreign traditions. People often complain about Halloween, and I get it, it's an extremely commercial and unnecessary holiday. But if wa can make it our own thing, partially going back to a more folky event, I don't see what's wrong with it. Now we actually have a decent autumn holiday! |
November first and second are the same days we honor our dead here in Mexico as well. I have always find it curious that many of these celebrations fall in very similar dates even when they were originated in very distant places thousands of years ago.
