Halloween
Boo hoo (34)
Terribly naive of us, but we hadn’t really thought that holidays would celebrated differently here. We’ve handled the (lack of) 4th of July just fine. Ditto Labor Day (Amy had a doctor’s appointment).
But we hit October 1 and it came to a screeching stop: Where were the pumpkins? The hay bales and witches smashing into trees? In short, Halloween is our holiday. During Covid, yes, we did a candy chute (that we had to reprise the next year since the kids clamored for it).
We judge jokes (it’s a St. Louis thing), we line the sidewalk with 10 glowing pumpkins, we hand out hot cider to the adults. We’ve proudly been TP’d. Amy’s car was stickered.
We understand that recently Halloween has begun making some inroads here. As of October 27, we have seen some meager store displays.
We’ve heard rumors that there may even be a small amount of trick or treating happening, primarily due to American tv and movies making their way over and influencing today’s kids. Young adults get on the very small bandwagon as well, hence the nearby hotel’s rooftop terrace hosting two parties that will go to 2 am and 3 am. Thank heavens our windows are amazing!)
Our first inclination was to get a pumpkin - somewhere, somehow - carve it, wear a costume, and stand at our building’s door step handing out candy to passersby. (Where we would said candy we have no idea. Halloween candy is not abundant.)
And then we realized that was not right. Not respectful. We did not move here to change Portugal into the parts of the US that we like. Our task is to assimilate into Portugal, not to force Portugal to assimilate to us.
November 1st (All Saints’ Day, a national holiday) and 2nd (All Souls’ Day, informal) are more important occasions here. What either of those days looks like remains to be seen.
So we’ve learned a very valuable lesson in this holiday through the lack of observance of this holiday. And we’re grateful for it. As much as it is painful.
That’s all for now.
Love from Lisbon,
Scott & Amy
Find an American International school and see if you can volunteer there or participate in their Haloween celebration. Christopher's had one with a hunted house, parade and other festivities. Also look for Carnival. It's the closest thing to Haloween with people dressing up in costumes, parades and parties. I think you'll like it.
I feel your pain; we have left behind a super amazing Halloween neighborhood, the kind people from other areas would make a destination for their own trick or treating. At least, there are numerous kids' events going on around here, fortunately for the tween... Various "trunk or treats" and costumed parties at places like an escape room and a trampoline park. Her international school is all fun and games tomorrow (they're off for mid-term break next week, so tomorrow is their Halloween); she is going dressed as a zombie volleyball player, and there is a school trunk-or-treat following dismissal. There are pumpkins to be had here (do you have a local market you can try? that is where we were directed to look), and we had no trouble finding zombie makeup in our local Chinese store, as they had a whole Halloween section.
I'm curious to see how they celebrate Easter here, as well. In the U.K., they didn't do the whole American style Easter basket o' loot, nor did families typically do private egg hunts (although there were some organized ones), but traditionally each child would just receive one very large, chocolate egg.