Life: Idiotropic

A bit of Halloween decorations and candy in the stores combined with the lure of sweets and the readily available American programming (dubbed, of course), and the Spanish have figured out what Halloween is.  Implementing it... well, that's where it gets tricky.

The kids know.  They dress up, grab bags, and head out.  The adults, well, that's where things get a bit slow.  Probably 90% of the kids want to adopt this holiday while less than 10% of the adults have a clue.  Thus, thousands of kids and only a couple houses offering candy = participating homes run out quickly and kids go home with what might fill a small sandwich bag.

Our neighborhood organized the "event."  The vigilantes stood watch and slowly drove around the neighborhood.  It was posted and mailed out that we would begin at 5:30.  At 5:30 there was a huge crowd of oddly dressed kids at the club entrance.  At 6, the vigilante told us to start and we all fanned out throughout the neighborhood.

Kirk and Elise passed out candy.  They were out in an hour and the doorbell ran for another hour even though the pumpkin was in and the lights off.

A pumpkin on the gate meant that house was open for trick or treating.  Not many were.  Some streets had one house.  It was still nice to be out walking and gave us the chance to gawk at some really palacial homes here.  (Mine is quite normal, but I live among mansions.)

With large yards and walls built around each home, it took a while at each house.  They'd ring the bell, then wait as the person inside had to gather the candy bucket, leave their house, walk to the gate, then open in and allow the children to choose candy. 

 An American in the neighborhood created a haunted house in her basement that was really quite scary.  A few allowed kids to enter their homes or patios for the candy.  I peeked in to see the houses themselves.  Amazing.

The Rules of Trick or Treating don't apply the same here.  Many houses gave out unwrapped candy.  A lot of gummies were thrown in.  My kids wanted to eat them... normally, they'd get tossed, but here... yep, they ate them.  It's Spain.  It's different.  In some ways, it's safer.  In this neighborhood, definitely.  And, most of the time, I saw the families grabbing the candy directly from the bag, so I saw where it came from. 

So, after two hours of walking and having a great time doing it, this was Arianna's loot.  Luci got about the same.  There was nothing left at our house.  Sad.  I bought some good stuff.