My son and I are leaving our small town in southeastern United States to live for a year in a small town in southeastern France. It couldn't possibly be THAT different, right?

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Halloween, French-style


To say that Halloween is not as widely celebrated in France as it is in the U.S. is an understatement.  At home, I spend at least $30.00 on candy for the 80 or 90 little ghosts and goblins who file past our decorated porch and through the tombstones in our front yard.  Here, I hung a skeleton on the glass door to the balcony, and I was the only person in the apartment complex to decorate at all.  I bought one bag of candy and had to go find kids to give it to.  Jed and I went trick-or-treating, but Jed did not want to dress up because he assumed that he would be the only one.  When he saw that his friend, Matthéo had a mask, he smudged some black makeup on his face and put on his skeleton jacket that he wears all the time anyway and called it a costume.  We went to about ten apartments total, and four of them gave us candy or fruit or money.  The others seemed surprised to see us or told us over the intercom that they did not have anything.  We passed by three adorable princesses in our travels, and they must have followed us home because not long after we arrived, they rang our bell.  If I had known then that they would be our only trick-or-treaters, I would have made their whole night.  Instead, I gave each one four pieces so that there would be enough for all of the other kids that I was sure that we would see.  I guess that I'll just have to eat the leftovers.  Hey, maybe Halloween in France is like Halloween in the U.S. after all!

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