Halloween

Before you roll your eyes and stop reading. I thought I’d tell you about how Halloween has changed in the little part of France I live in the past 20 years or so. When the children were small the big dressing up and asking for treats day was Mardi Gras. There would be knocks at the door all day if it fell in the school holidays.

Then Halloween started up and little by little grew and took over from Mardi Gras. We even organised a big Halloween party for the children in the village, with prizes for the best costumes. When I was an English assistant in Primary and secondary schools it provided and excellent lesson in Anglo Saxon culture, followed a few days later by the story of Guy Falkes

Now both Mardi Gras and Halloween seem to have been forgotten by the children for some reason. Despite half hearted attempts to sell costumes, wigs and masks in some of the shops.

November 1st is All Saints Day and is a holiday in France. Traditionally people visit the graves of their loved ones and leave chrysanthemums. It’s a good moment for a family get together. It’s lovely going shopping at this time of the year, the shops are full of pots of Chrysanthemums.

What do you do in your country?

A trivial post
Halloween is coming up really quickly. Today I came upon this trivia site which gives lots and lots of snippets of information on Halloween subjects such as Jack O’Lantern, cats and monsters. Did you know that the ancient Greeks associated monsters with women? For example gorgons, the harpies and Medusa! There are lots of other monster ‘facts’ from all over the world. Could prompt some original costume ideas.

When you were at school did you learn about the history of macaroni cheese? Now’s your chance. Do you know who Madame Popover was and what she did? There is everything you need to know about cough cures. You can hunt out trivia to impress your friends and amuse yourself by category. I can see my self spending a lot of time reading through this site.