Thriller Nights in Spain

Seeing that Halloween isn't the most purposeful holiday to begin with in the U.S., it isn't very surprising that Spain (or Europe for that matter) doesn't dress up in costumes or run screaming through haunted houses too often on the 31st of October. But they do know at least know what it is.

For students in bilingual schools, if they don't have the luxury of getting sick off candy or wetting their pants from scary stories at home, they at least get to celebrate in the classroom. As the Language Assistant, my job is to not only help with the English language, but to also teach my culture. So for Halloween, I created a powerpoint about the holiday's history, traditions and of course included some nice photos of yours truly dressed up in past Halloween costumes.

Halloween SPOOK Teaching Activity:

Throughout the powerpoint, specific words would be orange and in bold (ex: Jack-o-lantern, the number "2,000" for how old Halloween is, Frankenstein, etc.). Before I started my presentation, I instructed the kids to write down the words and make sure to remember what they meant. Then after, we played BINGO, which I changed to SPOOK (I know, so clever). The kids made their own SPOOK cards by choosing their from their word bank (of the list of words they wrote from the presentation). Then I called out trivia questions and if they had the answer, they would mark their cards and call SPOOK when they got Bingo.

I played this game with the 4th graders as well, but a much simpler version where I just held up flash cards (as you can see in the photo) and they marked their card if they had the picture.

The game was a hit with both the 4th and 6th!

The talk of the day though, I have to say, was Thriller. Yes, Michael Jackson's Thriller. He lives on, even in Spain. The 6th graders had been practicing all week during lunch learning the Thriller dance. So as soon as the bell rang for lunch on "Halloween," the kids immediately put on ragged, white shirts and scary red and white make-up and the teachers took them to do an impromptu Thriller dance right in the middle of the cafeteria for all the younger kids. It was hilarious, that's all I have to say.

All in all, I learned that some families won't celebrate Halloween because of its pagan "roots," which actually isn't all too accurate-but it has the reputation and for some that's enough. Other Spanish families, however, have picked up a few Halloween traditions. You can actually spot kids trick-or-treating on Halloween and "Houses of Terror" (what we call Haunted Houses) seem to be quite a deal here too, if you want it to be.

Otherwise, it's just another day gone by for the Spaniards, and maybe just a few more YouTube hits than usual on the Thriller music video.

You can't be cliché in a country that doesn't really celebrate Halloween, right?

#culture #teaching #holiday