It's Halloween

It's Halloween friends!  Here they call it "Dia das Bruxas" or Day of the Witches.  It's not really a Brazilian holiday, but one they are taking on as a result, I'm sure, of influences from other locations (say, the US?).  American pop culture has a strong hold here, and lots of movies, magazines and TV shows feature Halloween content this time of year.  I've been told celebration of Halloween gains popularity every year in Brazil.   In a way, it reminds me of Cinco de Mayo in the US.  An imported holiday starting as an excuse for Mexican restaurants to have a special and eventually turning up everywhere.

However, Halloween is celebrated quite differently here.  When I think of Halloween, I think of adorable little pumpkins, cowboys, supermans and princesses politely ringing my doorbell with requests for treats.  Here it is blood, gore, and all of the things we, in my house at least, avoid about the holiday. 

At least one school that I know of in our town is celebrating Halloween today, complete with costumes. (Thankfully for mom, that is not our school!)  I've seen some posters and decorations, even a few costumes in the stores.   They are witches, zombies, mummies, ghosts and so on.  Absolutely nothing cute.  Absolutely nothing I would allow even my 6-year-old to wear.

Last year we had a few high school aged kids trick-or-treat at our house, for which we were entirely unprepared.  As a result, this year I have a few things on hand.  But, it has been pouring rain all day.  I can't say I'm disappointed.  The pranksters won't even get started with the doorbell ringing until long after my kids are in bed.

So, how do we, as Americans in a foreign land, maintain our traditions for this (admittedly unimportant) holiday without taking on a great influence of the gore it's laden with in Brazil?

Simply, we celebrate at home.  I baked a squash and saved the seeds.  We glued them onto pumpkins that we cut out of orange paper.  I taught M how to make those cute little klennex ghosts and they adorn our house.  D cut out a few pumpkins and bats, H painted paper orange and we cut it into a pumpkin shape.  We baked cut out cookies and decorated them with Halloween sprinkles which we brought from the States. We won't have costumes, and we won't trick-or-treat.  But thanks to our Grandmas and DaddyHealy's recent trip back to the States, we have an ample supply of Halloween candy.  So much, indeed, that we decided to share some of these American favorites with our other American friends.  We made a bag for each American kid in town and put a little of this and a little of that, to sort of spread the joy of having candy corn and pixie stix this Halloween.   After school we plan to reverse trick-or-treat, and deliver these treats to our friends without any tricks.

Oh, and just for fun, at lunch time, we ate candy corn and pretended it was our vegetable.  Tee-Hee.  That is funny stuff when you are 4.  Happy Halloween everyone!