Halloween in France
November 3, 2009 Leave a comment
Halloween in France is not what I expected it to be. It doesn’t carry the same flare as Halloween does in North American and Halloween in France feels like the primordial ooze of a holiday compared to the super evolved hyperspecies it is in North America.
The holiday is new with people celebrating it for only four years or so. It has been accelerated by the club scene which decorates their walls with thematic pumpkin and ghoul cutouts but the translation for kids is not the same. Some kids do trick-or-treat and others don’t. In fact, I don’t think they get it as I found some kids trick-or-treating at 2pm. Their candy per hour ratio (a common calculation done by any experienced Halloweener – candy:time) is considerably low – and clearly they are bringing down the national average. I also barely found any decent candy in the supermarkets leading up to the holiday.
People also feel obligated to wear spooky costumes not realizing that you can really dress as anything you like. All the costumes in the stores had a witch-goblin-obese pumpkin theme to them. Silly rabbits…
For me, I didn’t do anything. I live and work in a remote part of Southern France and getting out of the area, even to find a decent Halloween event, is impossible. I miss Halloween – it is my favourite time of year.
Halloween is still in it’s infancy, like in many parts of Europe, but I hope to see the day evolve to the glorious, huggable monster it is in Canada and the US. Then, and only then, could I ever call any part of Europe home.
(by the way, only two weeks left and I head to Monrovia, Liberia)
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