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Sunday, October 30, 2016

Halloween is back ! Let's learn some typical Halloween-related traditions

The night of the dead is approaching. I'm sure you have already seen children, teenagers and family on the street all dressed up as ghosts, vampires or scary monsters. If you think Halloween is a typically American festival, then think again because thanks to globalization, Halloween is everywhere ! Last year I wrote a post about 10 Halloween icons, but this year I have decided to outline the most important Halloween traditions hoping that you can learn a lot from this post :

1. Carving pumpkins and transforming them into spooky Jack-o-lanterns :
Americans enjoy buying huge pumpkins (or growing them by themselves). They then empty them, carve them to look like scary, frightening creatures, they put a candle inside them and ta-da, yo have a terrifying homemade Jack-o-lantern to scare your neighbours away.
From : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LedmS1Zb1eY

2. It's all about getting dressed up :
One of the charms of Halloween is to make your better disguises shine. Yeah, people love wearing their best costumes. However, contrary to what you may think, costumes do not need to be scary at all. Of course you can dress up as a witch, ghost, mummy or zombie, but you may as well disguise as a police officer, fairy, firefighter or any other possibilities. 


From : http://www.partycity.com/category/halloween+costumes.do

3. Trick-or-treating :

Probably the best tradition for all children. Children get dressed and they go door-to-door asking for candy, pronouncing the words : "trick or treat." These words basically mean that if they don't receive candy, they will pull a prank / play a trick on the house owners (by throwing eggs, wrapping it in lots of toilet paper...). Then, they will get back home where they will count their booty, which will probably last until Christmas. 
From : https://memegenerator.net/instance/29389278
4. Pulling pranks on others /playing trick on others : 
Halloween has proved to be the perfect festivity for pranksters and jokers. People seem to very creative. The jokes may very from throwing toilet paper or eggs to scare people in many different ways. In one American programme, though, they issue a challenge where they ask parents to tell their children that they ate all their Halloween candy. Here you have two hilarious videos showing some pranks. Enjoy them : 


5. Watching horror movies or scary chapters of your favourite TV series :
Halloween is the perfect time of the year to spend some time at home watching TV haunted with fear. In October some new horror films are released, among them new installments of Paranormal Activity or Saw. There are very popular films such as Hocus Pocus, Halloween, Tuesday, 13th,... TV series are flooded with Halloween-themed chapters. Who hasn't seen the Simpsons' Halloween special ? 

6. Haunted houses :
Another way to have fun is by means of haunted houses. You rent or use a big house, decorate it with cobwebs, bats and other spooky stuff. Then you invite people over and try to scare them away while you have fun. You can also go to a haunted house set up specially for Halloween in a theme park. 
From : http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2011/09/28/theme-parks-cash-in-on-quests-halloween-screams.html
7. Halloween games :
Not everything in Halloween needs to be scary or creepy. There are funny games that can be played to have fun. One of it is bobbing for apples, a game where children must try to catch some apples from a bucket with water using their mouths (and faces). You know, like fishing apples without the help of your hands. 

From : http://www.halloweenonearth.com/halloween-object-Bobbing-for-Apples-19.html
Another interesting game is the mummy game, a competition to wrap your children in toilet paper as fast as you can. Aren't they cute ?
From : http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2013/10/toilet-paper-mummy-game.html
Moreover, at schools, some Halloween parades are organized so that you can enjoy and see all the people's costumes :
From : http://blog.mrcostumes.com/halloween-parades-in-maryland-2012/
8. Cooking and eating creepily delicious food :
There is a wide range of ideas and recipes that you can cook on Halloween. These are just only a few of ideas :


               Pumpkin pie              Roasted pumpkin seeds
    
                  Candy corn                                       Eyeball tacos
   
        Oreo Spider cookies                       Candy ghost lollipops
    
  Candy apples (pumpkin mode)                   Skull cake
       
Chocolate pudding mixed          Halloween cookies         
with crushed Oreo and 
gummy worms.

9. Halloween emblems and symbols :
Last but not least, if you want to learn a lot vocabulary about the main characters of Halloween, do not hesitate and watch this wonderful presentation. 



Well, this is all for now. I hope you have an entertaining yet terrifying night. Have fun and eat lots of sugary products and be original with your costumes. At the end of the day, why do we have Halloween if not for fun ?
Have a horrific night.

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