http://alisonslife-in-the-slow-lane.blogspot.com/ Life in the Slow Lane: THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGING......

Thursday 1 November 2012

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGING......

....certainly when it comes to Halloween. When we bought our house here in 2006, there was absolutely no sign of Halloween being celebrated...maybe a little by the expats, but you certainly couldn't buy anything to help with the decorating -apart from pumpkins. Fast forward six years and look what I came across in the village last night!





This is one of our local Spanish mums, dressed as a very glamorous witch(though I know you wouldn't know by the poor quality of the pic) ...... she had organised a street party for the local children, though unfortunately the children had gone 'trick or treating' with some of the other mums and were nowhere to  be seen. She had the front of her house decorated for the occasion....you can just about make out the little ghost at the left hand corner of her door.

Today is traditionally the celebration day in Spain...with Dia de Todos los Santos (All Saints Day). It is a public holiday, and you will find most of the older generation in the local cemeteries and attending Church Services remembering those who have died. Apart from the bars and restaurants, the only shops open are the florists who do a roaring trade today as people buy flowers to take to their loved ones' graves.

I always feel that once Halloween is over, I can think about getting those Christmas DVDs and CDs out...happy dance!!!

Thanks for dropping by!
Take care of you
Alison xx

19 comments:

  1. Interesting how pervasive the Anglo-American culture is! Hoping you enjoy dancing very soon.

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  2. Yes, what Alexa said :) Though I definitely blame America!

    I'm not ready to think about Christmas yet - December is the earliest for me, apart from a few simple preparations like buying some gifts and maybe making some cards, and planning my JYC of course ;)

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  3. I'm with you 100% Alison. Once Halloween is done and can start to seriously think about Christmas.
    Fiona xx

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  4. Interesting change in 6 years!

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  5. Like you I can't wait to get started on Christmas x

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  6. Hi Alison! I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that it is NOVEMBER FIRST!!! I'm kind of in disbelief.

    I think it's cool that Halloween is catching on in Spain. I was surprised when I found out it wasn't such a big deal in the UK - considering it's huge in the US.

    We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year, so I will have a house full of family in a few weeks (yay!!!) and then it will be Christmas. I think I need to focus my thoughts on that in an effort to forget about other things...

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  7. It's virtually non existent in Australia, though, there are some commercial aspects starting to creep in. I'm not quite ready for Christmas thoughts just yet - give me a few weeks!

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  8. I love her outfit! Hope you had a nice Halloween :)

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  9. She looks great, shame the children had all gone off though. I'm the same as you, Christmas all the way now! xx

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  10. We wait until Thanksgiving Day to get out the Christmas music & movies, but I certainly better start thinking about those few handmade gifts I want to create NOW!!

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  11. Yes, what Alexa said! Trick or Treating was nowhere to be seen here only a few years ago -it's hard to believe now. At least Christmas likes to stay the same :)

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  12. Sadly missed our version of All Saint's Day. We have Thanksgiving to celebrate before Christmas.
    Rinda

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  13. Well Halloween is huge in the US. I think it is the second biggest retail holiday in the nation.

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  14. I love the way All Hallows is growing! I had to LOL at the Christmas films comment (see my comment on your Parade post!)

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  15. We had a Halloween party at work as usual ... I can't wait till after Thanksgiving when I can get out the Christmas stuff! I think I need to watch some new Christmas movies this year and expand my repertoire.

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  16. I always thought it was just a North American thing - the. De orating up I mean. Pardon the typos I'm havingiPad issues.

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  17. I really do have to slow down with my reading. When I first scanned this post, I thought it read "local Spanish NUNS" so you can imagine that I couldn't quite reconcile the description and the photo. Hmmm, I thought, nuns must be WAY different in Spain they are here. So in the end, I was relieved to see my mistake. Hopefully a few trick-or-treaters eventually made their way back to this mum's house.

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  18. We don't celebrate Halloween in South Africa & I'm glad of that as it seems to have it's roots in Paganism so I would have to give it a miss anywhere in the world but having a world dress up day sounds like a fun concept - just not all the gruesome stuff traditionally associated with Halloween!

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  19. I think Halloween can be fun, but it's turned into a kind of street begging around our way with car loads of mask-wearing teens turning up and doing some sort of knock & dash around the estate! They bang so loudly and insistently it must be quite scary for some. I like it for the little ones though - am happy to open the door before about 7pm and hand out some sweets, but I take my time and admire each costume!

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