How is Halloween being celebrated abroad?

Halloween is one of the most fun autumn holidays celebrated all over the world - in America, Australia, and even in Africa. The holiday traces its history to the traditions of the ancient Celts, and for the first time began to be widely celebrated in its current form in the UK and Ireland, and today it has become truly international. The main idea of ​​the holiday - a meeting with the spirits of the dead - usually persists, but in most cases Halloween is already loosely connected with the traditions of the Celts - for most it is just an opportunity to have fun one of the autumn days.

Students celebrate Halloween especially vividly - they use a variety of costumes, rallies, as well as many local traditions and rituals characteristic of a particular country. Despite the fact that in recent years Halloween has become popular in Russia, it is celebrated on a much larger scale abroad - preparation often begins many weeks in advance, and the spirit of the holiday embraces everyone - both adults and children. Today we will tell you about how Halloween is celebrated abroad - we bring you stories from those who themselves became participants in these events.

Benjamin Powell from Marion, Ohio, USA shared with us three stories about celebrating Halloween at different periods of his life

WhenI was a kid, my family didn't celebrate Halloween, and the city I lived in was too small to walk around the neighborhood and play candy or life.However, the church my family attended always celebrated the harvest season.On this day, we used to gather at a farm owned by one of our Church leaders for a gala dinner.But local children had their own entertainment at this holiday - to ride on carts loaded with hay.I remember how we chased cats and goats, waiting for the sunset to ride these carts through the fields in the middle of the night in complete darkness.And I also rememberhot chocolate and cookies that our parents gave us that day.

I first played candy or life at the age of 12 or 13.A friend of mine who lived in a nearby town invited me to celebrate Halloween with him.Fortunately, my parents let me go, and I went to him.At the party, I was in a vampire costume, and my friend was in the guise of an evil chef.We walked like this all over the city, knocked on doors, and in every house we were given some kind of sweets.It was very cool and fun!Unfortunately, one episode marred that day.When my friend left the room, I decided to scare him.I wanted to hide under the covers and then jump out and scream when he opened the door.However, I was in such a hurry to throw the covers over myself that I hit the headboard.The wound I received began to bleed, and instead of laughing at my frightened friend, I spent the rest of the evening in the hospital.
However, this did not stop us from celebrating Halloween together again.The next year, my best friend and I made a two-headed monster costume.This time we got a huge amount of all kinds of sweets from our neighbors.they really liked our unusual costume, and the holiday itself, fortunately, went without any incident.

When I was in college, celebrating Halloween wasn't as exciting as it used to be as a kid.Usually we just got together with friends and watched horror movies.However, in the past year, Halloween has become a real holiday for me again.My family invited me to take part in their annual haunted maze ride at their home.They built a real maze full of obstacles, filled it with creepy hanging things.In this labyrinth, in a scary zombie costume, I scared the children who dared to go through it.Despite the fact that I was incredibly hot in a bulky suit, this kind of entertainment was to my taste.Hopefully this year I will be able to "work as a monster" again for Halloween.

Elena Mikhailova from Veliky Novgorod about Halloween in Sweden and Finland

When I studied in Sweden, I was lucky to celebrate Halloween there, and more than onetimes, but as many as three, in view of the fact that the holiday fell on vacation days.For the first time, my neighbors on the campus where I lived, I decided to just sit on Halloween night by candlelight, whispering scary stories to each other.At this time, under the windows of the room where we were sitting, a student ran and knocked on our windows.For us, these knocks caused laughter rather than fright.

Soon my class and I flew to Finland for a few days.It was somewhat reminiscent of a school trip to a neighboring city, only instead of a city - a neighboring country.There the Finnish students threw us a real party, for which we picked up the right Halloween costumes and painted our faces properly.I remember that there was one strange episode at the party: in our large company there was a certain character in a mask, whom, as it turned out, no one knew: neither our delegation, nor the Finns.This became clear when we began to take apart the photographs and tag each other on them.Only this character remained unrecognized.By the way, until now.

The third part of my Halloween celebration involved a quest.When we returned from Finland, a group of campus enthusiasts decided to do a themed quest based on the "Haunted House" scenario.We, who were not involved in the creation of the quest, were taken to various rooms, in each of which sat "possessed", monsters or screamers.Of course, they suddenly jumped out of the closets and frightened us.Also, the wandering group was accompanied by a "guide" who, throughout the journey, told the story of the house and the ghosts that inhabit it.The coolest, in my opinion, was the moment when the guide said: “Go to the window.See?He stands here every night and waits ... ”Outside the window, in the snow, one could really see a silhouette in a black robe, which sharply raised his head and looked in our direction as soon as we approached the window.

Natalia Zonova, student of the University of Bologna, about Halloween in Italy

of the past.I spent my childhood in Rome.Even though we were the children of Russian diplomats, we happily adopted the seemingly “alien” holiday.The day before, my friends and I gathered in a dark gazebo to tell each other horror stories.It seems to me that I was never as scared as I was on those evenings.
We dressed up in creepy costumes and started walking around the neighbors."Sweets or nasty things" - it seems that the saying was like this.The most pleasant thing was to go to the parents of their friends - they were already ready for the fact that we would come, and prepared tangerines and sweets in advance.The most difficult thing was with the elderly people, many of them did not understand at all what was happening and why masked children came to them in a crowd this evening with something that looked like a threat.After going around the neighbors, we poured all the candies into one big pile and divided them equally.I think I perceived them as the first salary.

In Bologna, Italy's most student city, Halloween is more of an excuse to drink.The darkness of parties and get-togethers, the offer scatters eyes.Last year I came up with a Destiny costume.In general, I advise everyone to such abstract costumes - you can put on absolutely anything, build yourself an outfit from improvised means, and at the same time look good.Moreover, everyone found it amusing to ask me about what would happen in their future.Bologna is already a noisy and active city, and especially this evening.At 12 o'clock onon the street you can meet the darkness of children in costumes with their parents, this is a kind of matinee on the contrary.It is noteworthy that even in Europe not everyone approves of this holiday: the Facebook of my strongly Catholic mistress was full of messages like "Deliver us, Lord, from this wickedness. Amen"

Elena Mikhailova from Veliky Novgorod- about Halloween in the homeland of Dracula, in Transylvania (Romania)

Transylvania is perhaps the most atmospheric place to celebrate Halloween.Last year I was able to celebrate this holiday there.Our multinational group of students stayed in Brasov, where we rented two hostels.On the first day, or rather the first night, we had fun in local clubs, where we danced in costumes of vampires, dead and monsters.The next morning we went to Bran (Dracula's castle).I can say that the castle made a huge impression on me.Just imagine this picture: an ancient castle, late autumn, mountains are around, and foliage is slowly falling from dense trees to the ground.All this creates the very gothic atmosphere that is needed for Halloween.This weekend we also managed to go to the city of Sinaia, visited the Pelisor castle, where the king's residence was located in the past.Pelisor Castle is no less impressive than Bran Castle.Many of our company liked this castle even more than the world famous Dracula's castle.I was glad that on Halloween in Transylvania we were able to combine the entertainment program with visits to historical and mysterious places.However, due to this intense program, we practically did not get enough sleep.