As it approaches the end of October, I have noticed Halloween is celebrated pretty differently in England than it is here in the United States. Back home, preparation for Christmas is already in full swing with decorations and lights being dusted off and hung up again. It is a little bit like England skipped a few months. For us, Christmas starts in October since we do not really celebrate Halloween and we do not have Thanksgiving.
Back home in England, Halloween is not really that special. There are usually a few parties and children go trick-or-treating but other than that, it is pretty much like any other day. My family hardly ever gets any trick-or-treaters back home, mostly due to the fact we live in a small town so no one really bothers. Yet, every year we prepare for the holiday by buying chocolate and sweets just in case anyone comes round. But to be honest, we mostly hope no one does so we can keep the chocolate for ourselves!
Halloween in America is kind of hard to ignore. There are haunted houses (which I will never in a million years step foot in), corn mazes (all I can say is I should have taken a better pair of shoes), parties (again something I will most likely not take part in), pumpkin patches (managed to leave without a pumpkin which probably defeated the point, but in fairness I probably would not have got around to carving it). Not to mention, there rarely is a door around campus that is not decorated in some way! I get the feeling that my opinion on Halloween will not change but it will be an interesting experience for sure!
I have never really been a fan of Halloween. I never really got the appeal of it all. To me it is tacky and a bit pointless (sorry America). I’m not a big fan of parties anyway since being “the sober one” gets old pretty fast and costume choices for an adult female are not that great since most of the choices tend to focus on being revealing, ‘sexy’ versions of everything. Who exactly thought that was a good idea for an outfit to walk around outside at night at the end of October?!
Since this year I will spend Halloween in America I’m experiencing a whole different way of celebrating a holiday which most of the time is pretty easy to forget!
Would I want to spend Halloween in America again? Probably not since it is still not really my kind of thing. Would the U.S. version of Halloween work in England? Again probably not, we would most likely just complain about it.
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