Halloween Week: A More Personal Introduction…

We’ve told you what to expect in the upcoming week with a formal introduction–but here’s the more personal skinny on Halloween, and what it means to us.

Ana

Nothing. Halloween means nothing to me.

I was born in Brazil and spent most of my life there until I moved to England 4 years ago. We do not celebrate Halloween in Brazil – in fact, most people wouldn’t even know what Halloween was if it wasn’t for American movies and TV Shows showcasing it.

My first contact with the concept of Halloween was when I was 6 years old and my mother took me to see ET. Upon seeing that scene where the kids dress up ET as a ghost, I asked my mother what they were doing. I remember her reply very clearly: “it is their carnival.”

ET’s Halloween

This was a concept I understood well even then as Carnival in Brazil is the time of the year where we all put on costumes and go to street parties and balls (although you are probably more used to relating Brazilian carnival to images of naked women shaking their asses – that is so not how the majority of Brazilians celebrate carnival!).

It wasn’t until I was much older and started studying English and watching more movies that I understood what Halloween was – not that it made any difference to me, it was and it still is a cultural celebration that is not part of my life.

But what about the other stuff usually related to Halloween – not the costumes or the trick or treating – like the horror movies? It just so happens that I am a ninny. Horror movies scare the shit out of me, specially the ones with ghosts or demonic possession, or too much blood. Or zombies. And people dying. Chainsaws and claws. Although the suspense scares me much more than gore : an empty chair rocking back and forth can make me sleepless for months. No kidding. So I avoid them like the plague. I will watch some that come highly recommended (if you consider peeking-through-my-fingers –with-eyes-half-closed “watching”) but I do not enjoy it.

Ana prefers romance

When Thea decided to hijack the blog and made me a list of movies and books to catch up with , I trembled but decided to man up and give it a go. As a result, I haven’t slept well in over a week – last night, I woke up and I swear it was not Dear Partner next to me. It was an alien.

Thea

I think my love affair with Halloween started at birth. Ok maybe not quite at birth, but definitely at a young age. One thing I will always love about my parents is how they never really restricted me from watching scarier movies or shows–I remember watching Child’s Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Tales From the Crypt, etc. in first and second grade. And, I was fascinated. Scared, yes, but fascinated all the same.

Halloween was fun for the dressing up aspect, of course the candy aspect, but also for the prospect of decorating the house with spiderwebs and witches, getting to tell scary stories and holding seances with friends… (On a nostalgic sidenote, one of my favorite cassette tapes was bright orange and featured only haunted house noises–creaks, moans, shrieks, etc. I loved that tape and used to just listen to it. No joke. In retrospect, this is probably pretty weird.) And for the record, yes, I was the kid that always wanted to play Bloody Mary, create makeshift Ouija Boards, hypnotize friends (and my litte sister), build walkthrough ‘Haunted Houses’ (again, with my unfortunate little sister)…so Halloween definitely is the holiday that brings all those things together for me.

My love for this season and for shit that scares has never faded–if anything, it’s grown worse with time! I drag my poor boyfriend to any horror movie in theaters that looks even decently scary (and a bunch of ones that don’t because you NEVER KNOW), as well as annual Halloween Scare Fests (see picture below):

SO. Given that we do a lot of romance and fantasy over here, I decided to hijack the blog and force Ana to do my bidding for this one week–making her read favorites like It and watching The Evil Dead and The Amityville Horror (though I haven’t yet bullied her into watching The Exorcist–Ana says she has her limits).

Now you know a little more (more than you wish you knew?) about us and our relationships with Halloween! What about you? Any Halloween skeletons in your closet?