Until you have to explain the concept of Halloween and the things we do to celebrate it to a foreigner, you never realize how weird it is. While teaching international students in Boston and Miami, this was one of my favorite times of year. I would do Halloween-related activities all week and tell my students that wearing a costume to school was mandatory. It was awesome. My students were always a bit apprehensive about it. They didn't believe me that adults wore costumes until they went out to the bars the weekend of Halloween and witnessed it for themselves. The slutty nurse costumes were particularly disturbing to the Muslim students, but even they rolled with it.
In Angola, it's a different story entireley. I'm not on my home turf here and Halloween was not welcomed with open arms, to say the least. In a culture where witchcraft is still very much alive and well, they do not take kindly to dressing up like ghosts and decorating houses with tombstones. It hits a little too close to home. A couple weeks ago, I introduced my university students to Halloween with a short story about a couple of kids who went trick or treating, but stumbled upon a haunted house. "Teacher, I don't like this story," was the first reaction I got. Then the questions started. Why do you celebrate this? What is the history? Do religious people celebrate Halloween? I tried and tried to convey the idea that it's only for fun and it really doesn't mean anything and that it's not a religious holiday, but my efforts were in vain. One student looked up the word Halloween in his Portuguese-English dictionary. The translation was Dia dos Santos (Day of Saints). That definitely didn't help my cause. I felt completely defeated as the students half-heartedly completed their assignments, keeping an eye on their heretical teacher who was unsuccessfully trying to immerse them in some sort of pagan ritual.
The following week, I was asked to give a presentation about American culture to a group of high school students. The topic - Halloween. This time I was prepared. I knew about this event a few weeks in advance and since I had just traveled to the US, I picked up some Halloween candy to bring back with me. From what I have witnessed, most of public diplomacy involves giving stuff to people so that they like us, and by association, our country. So I followed suit. After a brief presentation where I showed pictures of jack-o-lanterns and cute kids dressed up like clowns and super heroes, I let the candy flow. As soon as they had mini packets of Skittles and individually wrapped Reese's peanut butter cups in their hands, they were fully on board with Halloween. I made everyone say "trick or treat" before reaching into the plastic cauldron, which was purely for my amusement, as they had no idea what they were saying.
The presentation also happened to be the day after the presidential election in the US, so I brought eleciton activity books that were sent to us from DC. Luckily, there was a page with my favorite activity - coloring! The students gently unwrapped their Starbursts and carefully filled in the Statue of Liberty's torch with a yellow crayon, and I thought, maybe this is how we get the rest of the world to like us - bags of fun-sized candy and boxes of Crayolas. I might be on to something here.
In Angola, it's a different story entireley. I'm not on my home turf here and Halloween was not welcomed with open arms, to say the least. In a culture where witchcraft is still very much alive and well, they do not take kindly to dressing up like ghosts and decorating houses with tombstones. It hits a little too close to home. A couple weeks ago, I introduced my university students to Halloween with a short story about a couple of kids who went trick or treating, but stumbled upon a haunted house. "Teacher, I don't like this story," was the first reaction I got. Then the questions started. Why do you celebrate this? What is the history? Do religious people celebrate Halloween? I tried and tried to convey the idea that it's only for fun and it really doesn't mean anything and that it's not a religious holiday, but my efforts were in vain. One student looked up the word Halloween in his Portuguese-English dictionary. The translation was Dia dos Santos (Day of Saints). That definitely didn't help my cause. I felt completely defeated as the students half-heartedly completed their assignments, keeping an eye on their heretical teacher who was unsuccessfully trying to immerse them in some sort of pagan ritual.
The following week, I was asked to give a presentation about American culture to a group of high school students. The topic - Halloween. This time I was prepared. I knew about this event a few weeks in advance and since I had just traveled to the US, I picked up some Halloween candy to bring back with me. From what I have witnessed, most of public diplomacy involves giving stuff to people so that they like us, and by association, our country. So I followed suit. After a brief presentation where I showed pictures of jack-o-lanterns and cute kids dressed up like clowns and super heroes, I let the candy flow. As soon as they had mini packets of Skittles and individually wrapped Reese's peanut butter cups in their hands, they were fully on board with Halloween. I made everyone say "trick or treat" before reaching into the plastic cauldron, which was purely for my amusement, as they had no idea what they were saying.
The presentation also happened to be the day after the presidential election in the US, so I brought eleciton activity books that were sent to us from DC. Luckily, there was a page with my favorite activity - coloring! The students gently unwrapped their Starbursts and carefully filled in the Statue of Liberty's torch with a yellow crayon, and I thought, maybe this is how we get the rest of the world to like us - bags of fun-sized candy and boxes of Crayolas. I might be on to something here. 
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