I
already wrote an article about Halloween in Baltimore, and how my kids were
delighted then. Here in France also we try to celebrate Halloween, even more
since our return from the US, mainly because kids love to dress up.
We
therefore bought new costumes for each of the 4 kids a few days before, whereas
last year they had reused their old costumes. In fact they love mixing their
costumes and create new ones. But this year they each chose a new costume. They
were dressed up and we went to “parc des Poussins”, THE park of Lille with
rides and attractions. The park staff encourages children to come dressed up
for October 31.
My husband and I had also taken a piece of our costumes in
Baltimore (blindfold from his pirate costume and my witch hat from my witch
dress), which made some heads turn (since adults are rarely dressed up in
France).
As
for candies, knowing there was no distribution, we had brought some candies to
the park :-)
Halloween
in the United States is of course far more impressive and I read these days many
articles on dressing up ideas to DIY, terrifying cupcakes and
"snacks" to prepare and cult films to watch. I also read several
articles that caught my attention.
In
one of them, where Halloween in the 80s is compared to Halloween today one
could read:
« Just a few decades ago,
the costume lineup was usually filled with a few head-shaking choices. People
weren't as aware of political correctness during Halloween as they are now.
There was a plethora of kids dressing up as Native Americans, Hispanics, Geisha
girls, and more now-offensive looks. »
Holly
cow! Indians and cow-boys dress ups, as well as Japanese princesses are such classic
costumes in France! One of my sons loves Indian costumes (for their bright
colors and because he loves to imagine himself as an Indian chief), so we have
several Indian costumes. Besides the catalog of this toy store where we
purchased the costumes (like other brands) clearly exposes some of these costumes.
I never thought it could be offensive!
I
also read an article about the dangers that parents fear during Halloween and
the probability they actually happen. The article mentioned particularly
"eating poisoned candies, swallowing a hidden razor blade, costume catching
on fire, or getting hit by a car."
Curiously
the author didn’t mention the probability of a shootout! Yet in the local
newspaper of Colorado Springs, "the Gazette", they remembered their
readers of a shooting that happened on the morning of Oct. 31, 2015. They especially
remembered them of the fact that the killer had been reported to the police walking
with a gun in the street, but no police officer intervened:
« Ten minutes before the
first person died on Oct. 31, 2015, Bettis called Colorado Springs police about
an armed man across the street. A dispatcher said the man wasn’t doing anything
illegal, because Colorado’s law allows for openly carring guns. No officers
responded. »
Definitely,
cultural differences lead people to pay attention to different issues...
Libellés : English
