Do Czechs celebrate Halloween? / Slavi Cesi Halloween?

Happy belated Halloween! Although I am not a big of fan of Halloween ( why the heck would I celebrate ghosts and witches and dead people??) I do like to dress up. You see, the Czechs don’t have Halloween at all; we celebrate the All Saint’s Day on November 2nd which is nothing like Halloween. People basically go to the cemeteries during the day and lay candles on their beloved’s graves to honor and remember them. “Well, do you guys ever dress up??”, you may wonder. And yes, we do! Except it is not on any particular day; it may be any day of the year and we call it the Carnival. I used to love carnivals when I was a kid. My mom would always make us our costumes, some year better than others, depending on if she was in a “carnival mood” or not. One time she made my brother a robot costume made out of old cardboard boxes and a bunch of aluminum foil. My brother won that year.

Other times, my parents would just stick a tennis racket in my hand and said: “Here you go, now if anyone asks, you say you are dressed up as a tennis player”. I am not even sure why we tried to win since 99% of the time the main prize would go to our neighbor’s kids who’s grandma worked in a National Theater as a costume artist and would get all of her costumes from the professional wardrobe. I guess it’s the child’s innocent mind that always hopes and tries for the best in life.

This year my Czech friend and I got to go to a little Czech carnival here in the US. What a treat! We sang Czech songs, watched a puppet theatre and ate Czech food. I didn’t dress up (although have said that I was dressed up as a “mother”) but I made sure to dress up our little Hanicka. I may be a little subjective but I thought she looked so cute!! I mean, you put a bunny next to her and you wouldn’t know which one is which,right?!

CZ: Stastny a vesely Halloween! I kdyz ja moc velky fanousek Halloweenu nejsem (proc bych uctivala smrtky, duchy a mrtvoly??) obycejny cesky karneval se mi libi. Kdyz jsme byli s brachou mali, tak nam vyrabela kostymi mamka. Nekdy se ji to povedlo lepe, zalezelo na tom jestli byla v karnevalove nalade. Jednou udelala brachovy kostym robota vyrobeneho ze starych krabic a aluminoveho obalu a soutez tento rok taky vyhral. Nekdy by mi ale rodice 10 minut pred zacatkem karnevalu vrazili do ruky tenisovou raketu se slovy “Tak tady to mas, a kdyz se te nekdo zepta co jses, tak ze jses tenistka, jo?”. Mimochodem ani nevim, proc jsme se jako deti vubec snazily vyhrat, protoze z 99% cenu vzdycky vyhrali sousedovic deti, protoze jejich babicka pracovala jako kostymerka v Narodnim divadle.

Tento rok byl bajecny, ponevadz jsme s mou ceskou kamardkou nasly CESKY karvneval u nas – v USA! Zpivaly jsme ceske pisnicky, jedly ceska jidla a zdalky jsme s detmi sledovaly  manaskove divadlo. Sama jsem  zadny kostym nemela (tedy pardon, byla jsem prevlecena za “maminku”), ale z Hanicky se na den stal roztomily zajicek…