Feliz Halloween!
When trying to find some Spanish words about Halloween, I found the following expressions:
(1) Feliz Halloween
(2) Feliz dia de Brujas; La Noche de las Brujas
(3) Día de los Muertos
Do both (1) and (2) refer to the same holiday? Are people in Spanish-speaking countries caring about it or not? But Día de los Muertos is highly valued, isn't it?
Please offer opinions, photos or Spanish words/sentences(with English translation) related to the above holidays here. Thank you very much.
5 Answers
Happy Halloween!
Hola, NikkiRivera y Scribe-Lady,
Thank you both very much for offering me such good and complete information.
When learning a foreign language, I always think that its culture including customs and holidays should not be ignored. In Taiwan, we have two different holidays. One is called Tomb Sweeping Day on which we visit our ancestors’ graves and bring fruits and food there to worship them and clean up the graveyard at that time; the other is called Ghost Festival which falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, but actually the whole seventh lunar month is called “Ghost Month.” It is believed that ghosts are released from the hell to the human world on the first day of that month and return to the hell on the last day of it after one-month wondering freely around the living world. Ghost Festival is solemn in Taiwan. People burn paper money for ghosts to use and prepare lots of food for them to eat in order to get good luck; therefore, ghosts are treated very nicely and in awe by people here.
I share the culture of my country with you. If there is any similar holiday or custom in yours, please let me know.
I don't know a lot about "Día de los Muertos" - I know that it happens at roughly the same time as Halloween and both remember the dead. There are a few similarities in the way they're celebrated:
- Dressing up is usually involved.
- Special food is prepared for gatherings.
- Decorations of sorts also play a part.
- And there are a lot of sweets too!
The main difference seems to be that Día de los Muertos celebrations can be quite solemn since they're religious and people take flowers to graves and pray for the dead - Halloween, on the other hand, definitely seems to be more of a party time!
Very interesting.
I can tell you in TX, and I suspect other U.S. border-states with Mexico, there is a lot of intermixing of the two holidays. Most heavily among Latinos, but quite a bit by Anglos too. After taking two hours off to study with a peruvian friend, I went to a tequila bar (400 rabbits) where they were having a combined Halloween and Muertos party (good fun). Tomorrow night, I have a Muertos dinner and then a DJ-Latin-Dance Muertos party. Should be a good weekend for Spanish practice here.
Joy, I´ll say that Dia de los Muertos is much more heavily celebrated in Mexico than in other Spanish speaking countries. I even saw a Mexican rock band here get into it a bit recently, albeit 2 weeks early.
. edited -- Bueno, he añadido unas fotos como fue pedido.
Me gustaría a traer mi amiga a la fiesta
I would like to bring my friend to the party.
