I received a nice compliment a few weeks ago, when I picked up my daughter from a birthday party. A lady asked me if I was going to decorate my house again, like last year, she said my Halloween decorations were amazing.  The comment took me back a bit since 1. I didn’t know this person, and 2. She didn’t even live near me.

I was flattered indeed. Last year’s Halloween was fun. I had so many people tell me how scary my house looked. Little kids were terrified, but enjoyed it. One parent actually scowled at me and said it was over the top too frightening. [Note to self: don’t pass out candy to her kid this year!] 

A few weeks ago, I took the kids to a “Haunted Hospital” experience. It was very scary. Yes, we saw a few creepy clowns, trying to terrify us, but the zombies and “Walking Dead” were more terrifying.  The poor Grim Reaper who lead our group through the haunted hospital tour, tried to scare us, but I had him laughing in the end.  He was talking about nightmares (pesadilla) and blood (sangre) in Spanish, but all I heard was quesadillas and sangria… I’m like, what’s up with all this food talk, I’m getting hungry! Grim Reaper starts losing it… In the end, we all ran out of the hospital screaming in terror – my group of 6 eleven year old girls and a couple of 8 year olds, plus 4 adults. Definitely must go back!

Last weekend, I took my kids to a Halloween trick or treating event hosted by a traditionally American neighborhood. This street has a tradition of getting all decked out with scary decorations and hosting treat or treating kids.  In Spain, while Halloween is becoming more widespread, it is still not common for an entire block of neighbors to decorate, as in the US.  

So, what’s all this clown fuss about?  We saw a few creepy clowns during our trick or treating experience, but we also saw this silly chicken jump out at us.  

It seems that the clown madness is getting out of control. Media has reported cases where clowns are “lurking” in bushes, and “terrorizing” little kids, “following or stalking or luring” kids.  Wow.  That’s some heavy stuff. Stephen King has tweeted that it was “time to cool the clown hysteria.”  Pennywise is terrifying, but that’s fiction.  

What are some of the other fun costumes for Halloween this year? Apart from the normal witches, zombies, princesses, vampires, there were other interesting folks:

• My friend’s family was the crew from Stranger Things – which practically no one understood locally, but a few teenagers did appreciate it.
• We were the Addams Family – many people didn’t seem to get it… too old school. But I remind you that Gomez is of Castilian descent, and affectionately calls his beloved Querida ("darling") and Cara Mia ("my beloved").
• There was a Chick-fil-A, chicken – he was the one that jumped out and tried to scare us with his crazy chicken look.
• A few students from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – always a delight.
• The “Pink Ladies” from Grease, but I didn’t see the “T-Birds”.
• Some cheerleaders, and gymnasts, maybe an Olympian medalist in there too.

FYI - “trick or treat” is actually said "truco o trato" here in Madrid.   So there you go!  Creepy clowns are here, but so are Stanger Things, and the Walking Dead.  This year, we’ll have a cemetery in our front yard, and maybe a zombie grim reaper clown… Oh and if you happen to be dressing up as a Creepy Clown, be careful too, media has reported that folks are now on the offensive against the clowns… 

So be warned, and be careful, but have fun!

Happy Halloween!

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This article was written by Rachanee Thevenet, Co-Founder of HT Localization.  Rachanee is an Asian-American expat living in Spain with her family.  She loves all things international including food, art, literature, culture, languages and people.  She has years of professional product marketing expertise and global expansion experience.

HT Localization, LLC. is a worldwide translation & localization agency providing a full range of professional language translation services, including social media localization, marketing translations, website translations, software localization, eLearning materials, documentation translations, etc.  With locations in the US, Spain, France, Zambia & Thailand, and coverage across all languages and most industries, HT Localization is well positioned to provide around the globe services for all translation needs.  

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