Celebrating Halloween, in France and in the US
I already wrote an article about Halloween in Baltimore, and how my kids were delighted then. Here in France also we try to celebrate Halloween, even more since our return from the US, mainly because kids love to dress up.
We therefore bought new costumes for each of the 4 kids a few days before, whereas last year they had reused their old costumes. In fact they love mixing their costumes and create new ones. But this year they each chose a new costume. They were dressed up and we went to “parc des Poussins”, THE park of Lille with rides and attractions. The park staff encourages children to come dressed up for October 31.
My husband and I had also taken a piece of our costumes in Baltimore (blindfold from his pirate costume and my witch hat from my witch dress), which made some heads turn (since adults are rarely dressed up in France).
As for candies, knowing there was no distribution, we had brought some candies to the park 🙂
Halloween in the United States is of course far more impressive and I read these days many articles on dressing up ideas to DIY, terrifying cupcakes and “snacks” to prepare and cult films to watch. I also read several articles that caught my attention.
In one of them, where Halloween in the 80s is compared to Halloween today one could read:
« Just a few decades ago, the costume lineup was usually filled with a few head-shaking choices. People weren’t as aware of political correctness during Halloween as they are now. There was a plethora of kids dressing up as Native Americans, Hispanics, Geisha girls, and more now-offensive looks. »
Holly cow! Indians and cow-boys dress ups, as well as Japanese princesses are such classic costumes in France! One of my sons loves Indian costumes (for their bright colors and because he loves to imagine himself as an Indian chief), so we have several Indian costumes. Besides the catalog of this toy store where we purchased the costumes (like other brands) clearly exposes some of these costumes. I never thought it could be offensive!
I also read an article about the dangers that parents fear during Halloween and the probability they actually happen. The article mentioned particularly “eating poisoned candies, swallowing a hidden razor blade, costume catching on fire, or getting hit by a car.”
Curiously the author didn’t mention the probability of a shootout! Yet in the local newspaper of Colorado Springs, “the Gazette“, they remembered their readers of a shooting that happened on the morning of Oct. 31, 2015. They especially remembered them of the fact that the killer had been reported to the police walking with a gun in the street, but no police officer intervened:
« Ten minutes before the first person died on Oct. 31, 2015, Bettis called Colorado Springs police about an armed man across the street. A dispatcher said the man wasn’t doing anything illegal, because Colorado’s law allows for openly carring guns. No officers responded. »
Definitely, cultural differences lead people to pay attention to different issues…
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