Horror movies, carved pumpkins, and sweets, what are we talking about? Yes, it’s Halloween, of course. We all remember the days when we went trick-or-treating from house to house as children, asking for sweets and showing our friends our candy treasure received from our neighbours. Today Halloween is more popular than ever before and every year we wait for a unique Halloween party at our friends’ house or a horror movie night, right? In this blog we want to give you an insight into a couple of traditions in different Erasmus+ and Turing Scheme destinations and tell you about their celebrations. Perhaps your internship will take place during the Halloween season?Do you want to know how the locals at your Erasmus+ or Turing Scheme place celebrate? Let’s start our tour!
United States of America
It’s obvious to start with the USA where Halloween is celebrated to the full! It’s a Turing Scheme Country, for UK and British Overseas Territories students to visit. It’s also the place where you’ll see houses that are decorated with pumpkins, ghosts, lights, witches, and black cats – actually anything scary. Most of the time the Americans celebrate that day with their family, friends and even with work colleagues. What shouldn’t be missed are dishes that are suitable for that scary day, like a spider shaped cake or meatballs that look like Big Foot!
In addition to that, at the Turing Scheme destinations, costume parties are highly recommended. People really do dress up and the weirder and scarier the better. Like most other destination, in the US, children are used to going trick-or-treating to collect sweets, and if they don’t get them – the person that refused them will experience a trick which is why it’s called Trick or Treat.
Halloween hasn’t been that common until the last couple of years. That specific day gained its popularity because of expats living at this Erasmus+ destination. The Dutch started to get involved in the idea of wearing odd costumes at parties and to break their everyday routine.
However, actually the Netherlands has its own Halloween, two weeks after the official Halloween and it is called “Sint-Maarten”. Like the American way, children knock at doors and ask for sweets and even money. Instead of pranking the people that refuse them, they sing to them. Children wear face masks instead of full-body costumes.
Almost 2,000 years ago, the Celtic celebration of Halloween took place in Ireland. Then, people would celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of winter. In addition to that, it signified the end of life and the entrance to the netherworld.
Locals in this famous Erasmus+ country are used to see children wearing costumes in the late afternoon and evening and asking people for sweets. As the US tradition, people get pranked if they refuse to give children treats.
So, what is your favorite celebration during the year and how do you mark the day? Tell us in the comments below and we’ll share different festivities on our page. Also feel free to send us your traditional practices on Halloween so we can all learn something new.
Don’t forget to contact us, if you have any further questions about Erasmus+ and the Turing Scheme. We have organised plenty of internships for various business fields and can’t wait to plan your upcoming mobility.
For very detailed information about Erasmus+ we have two pages for you: just click here to read our Definitive Guide and here for the Educator’s Handbook.