My oldest son goes to an English school on Wednesdays. He's be hearing about about Halloween for the past month. French bakeries decorate their windows with spooky spiders and cobwebs. Disney World in France turns into a gigantic Halloweened land...But in reality, nobody in France acutally celebrates it.
First of all, the Catholic population in France is very high. They celebrate 'All Saints Day,' 'Toussaints.' This day is meant to celebrate all Saints that don't have their own holiday throughout the year. It's on November 1st. The French celebrate it by visiting cemeteries to pay respects to loved ones, and going to church. Halloween is like the antithesis of All Saints Day. If you're intersted in finding more about this, here's an interesting link I found.
Halloween was pretty popular in the late nineties until about 2005. I remember it being popular when I first arrived to France. Now it's pretty much over.
Last year, I went to an American get together, and we all celebrated Halloween at someone's house. It was fun, but it wasn't the same thing as trick or treating, getting candy that your parents have to sort through to make sure some twisted person didn't inject them with poison (did your parents do that?).
This year there was no American party. So, I got my kids costumes and painted my son's face. They both had their trick or treat bags (that I obviously got in the States). I got them candy corn. On Saturday we 'celebrated' Halloween. My son was like, 'OK, we're ready to go out trick or treating.' I was like, 'nahh, what's so fun about that?' (trying to disuade him from actually wanting to go out, rather than disappointing him). My son was like 'To get candy!' OK, so, I told him the truth, told him we'd make cookies instead, and that was that.
It's too bad we don't celebrate Halloween in France. That was one of my favorite holidays (hmm, after Thanksgiving and Christmas). Maybe it will be 'à la mode' sometime soon, before my kids get old enough to want to throw toilet paper and eggs at our neighbor's houses.
This is Lindsay, signing out.
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