Hallowe’en as a celebration seems to have been something fairly exclusive to the Americas (And Ireland, I guess. And Australia Japan New Zealand WHO’S COUNTING?), at least until more recent years where our natural globalizing trend has spread this festivity to other countries.

In Spain, at least, the local news talks about this generation of tweens and youth being the Halloween generation, the first to grow up celebrating this day consistently enough so as to ensure it for future generations.

It’s interesting to see the slow transition to celebrating new Holidays.
In the entire city, as I walked, I only ever passed by one costume shop. I couldn’t imagine trick or treating happening properly here, since most of the world is apartment-based, at least within the city.

Local news channels seem to give the best view of Halloween here: it’s a holiday meant to be scary.

I think that’s a little unfortunate though, because part of the fun of halloween was dressing up simply as something you’re not: a doctor, a princess, an animal.

Yet overwhelmingly, costumes here are meant to incite some form of fear.

Except with the way Spaniards are, things tend to not be that scary.

Friday night, I went with a friend to La Isla Magica, a theme part built on part of the property of the old World Expo from 1992. The park itself is amazing, because it has waterfalls and fountains and greenery like woah so you don’t feel like you’re in a theme park at all.

Traditionally, the park puts on decorations for a fright night of sorts.

Curious, we arrived and were giddy at all the people in costumes, even though we didn’t dress up. As we made our way inside, we headed to the closest haunted house (there were two; we didn’t see the second ultimately D:) and got in line.

At this point though, watching teenagers and youngins pass by us, we were able to draw some interesting conclusions.

Keep in mind, Spain is largely Catholic. However, the overwhelming majority of people were dressed as witches or devils. A response to a religious opinion? Perhaps.
Scares are rarely suspenseful or dramatic. They try to be right in your face and they kind of announce themselves as they appear. This makes them lose all effect for me, but it was endearing to see people try.

And that became far more noticeable in the Haunted House. We had a guide for the first half who was like AAND NOW YOU ARE ENTERING THE HALL OF EXPERIMENTATION, said in her raspy dramatic female voice, and except for the actors who would noiselessly join our group and tap us on the shoulder (which didn’t scare me at all, but the other Spanish women in the group (mothers, mind you, and not the -ilf kind :P) would cling to me or my arm desperately as I was the only male in the group and I just wandered through with a kind of “duhurr :B” look to my face.
I did try to warn Sarah when the actors approached. “Behind us. To the right. Up ahead.” Except she didn’t realize that I wasn’t just spouting directions for no reason so she got rather spooked.
Oh, rule difference: They CAN touch you in Spain. The sign before the haunted house says “Some of our guests may approach you and touch you. Allow yourself [to be touched].

All that said, there’s not much of an ambiance-suspense thrill felt here. All of it really is extremely dramaticized.
The other haunted house was located in their Aztec-y jungle-y part, but the wait was two hours so we didn’t go in. It looked potentially really good, however.

Outside of the park, however, Halloween was barely noticed. No kids, no costumes, no rampant partiers in costumes (Except for a few, and they were American :P)

SO ultimately, while the night was pleasant, it was missing a bit of that true halloween spirit. And after seeing some of the pictures of people back at Amherst, I do regret missing out on such a wondrous evening

Next time, I’ll post my waaaay after the fact impressions of more Foreign cities, classes, and people.
Take care~