Camping Landes » All Saints’ Day holidays and Halloween in Les Landes

All Saints’ Day holidays and Halloween in Les Landes

 

For many of us, Halloween is a strange celebration that we did not experience when we were  young. American children disguise themselves as ghosts or vampires in order to go and beg for sweets from their neighbours, as in the American series and in E.T. for example.

And it is of course due to the influence of American- made films that the celebration of Halloween has gradually started, since the 90s to make its appearance in France during the All Saints’ Day school holidays, with spooky disguises and decorated pumpkins … It is in fact a rather good excuse to have a bit of fun and to party!!

A Short History of Halloween

  • Originally, Halloween was a Celtic celebration whose purpose was to exorcise the fear of death.
  • During the Middle Ages, the Irish druids used to dress themselves as ludicrously as possible in order to ward evil spirits off the villages.
  • Today, in Ireland as in the United State, Halloween is celebrated to commemorate the departed . In the traditional Halloween custom, children go in costumes from house to house in their neighbourhood to fill their bag with sweets by threatening “ trick or treat ? “.

The Costumes

The idea is to be as frightening as possible by dressing up and using exaggerated make-up : ghosts, skeletons, witches, devils, the walking-dead, vampires… the more the costume is morbid, the better it is !

Going out in Les Landes for Halloween

Halloween normally takes place on October 31st in the evening. But most of the organized events take place the week-end before. If you wish to go out for Halloween in Les Landes, you can go for example to:

  •  Arcachon on October 29th : candy collection, workshops and games for children
  •  Biscarosse On October 30th : children’s activities organized by the association « Rayon de Soleil » (information and registration : 05 58 78 00 69 or 06 82 09 38 22)