Full disclosure – I am NOT a fan of Halloween: I don’t like being scared, trying to come up with a creative costume stressing me out, and the decorations are creepy. My boys LOVE Halloween. They love dressing up, they love all the creepy, scary decorations, and most especially, they love trick-or-treating and the haul of candy they bring in. Last year (2022), I think they each got over two pounds!
So they were both pretty disappointed with their first Halloween in Spain. Celebrating Halloween isn’t really a thing here, at least not trick or treating. I have heard that’s starting to change in some places, maybe more so out in the suburbs or areas where there are a lot of American expatriate families, but here in the city it’s not a thing at all. There was a Halloween party at the 12 year old’s school, which involved some sweet treats for sale as part of a fundraiser (we made rice krispie treats – finding marshmallows was an adventure for another blog!), but it wasn’t the same as spending a couple of hours in the dark with their friends going door to door and raking in the KitKats, Snickers, Twix, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!
No, the bigger deal in Spain is the day after Halloween, November 1st: Día de Todos Los Santos, All Saint’s Day. This is not the Mexican Día de Los Muertos, with the sugar skulls and tissue paper decorations. In Spain, the traditional thing to do on this day is to buy flowers to put on the graves of your loved ones, and many churches hold special masses to celebrate the day. For some it’s a party, but for many, it’s a solemn, reflective day to remember those they’ve lost. It’s a national holiday, which meant no school for the boys, which almost made up for the lack of candy! I know many of my teacher friends would like November 1st to be a national holiday – the day after Halloween is always a challenge!
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