Truco y Trato

This was my first Halloween that I didn’t dress up and it was possibly the worst idea ever. I knew that the day would eventually come where I would be too old to dress up for this holiday, but I never thought that that would be anytime soon. The U.S. is really good at “Americanizing” countries, so although Halloween is celebrated in Spain it is not nearly as hyped up or popular as it is in America. Here, the stores don’t decorate their windows with pumpkins or witches in fact; there was only one small, hole in the wall store that sold costumes. There isn’t specially packaged candy that fills the aisles of corner and grocery stores, nor are there horror movie marathons on TV the entire month of October. It’s completely different here, and so much more commercialized in the U.S. I went to Madrid to spend Halloween there thinking that it had to be big in a large city. I was wrong. Don’t get me wrong, there were people that dressed up, in fact a lot more people were wandering the streets in costume than I thought would. But this was a different kind of costume style. Gone were the superheroes and foam costumes bought in stores. Spaniards take the idea of Halloween, a night meant to scare and be scared, very literally. Everyone dressed up creepy. The girls didn’t wear skimpy clothing and don animal ears Mean Girls style. Instead, they painted their faces like skulls or with blood and the men did the same. Something clearly got lost in the translation. I think the saddest part was when I went out to the streets of Toledo to interview teens about their Halloween plans for my internship and they all said that they never went trick or treating and weren’t sure if they would even dress up for Halloween. I remember my parents taking me trick or treating in my neighborhood when I was little. Actually, I remember trick or treating until my sophomore year of high school. The best part was dumping my candy out on the table and trading with my friends and little brother. I’ll really miss buying all the Halloween candy that goes on sale after Halloween. The candy just isn’t the same here. I mean I long for Twizzlers. And as for scary movies, I have to watch them online. Next year, I am making Halloween a big deal. I’m already thinking about my costume.