“Trick or Treat?” That is a key question you need to answer even more frequently every 31st October to better celebrate Halloween. Its ancient Celtic origins included the Nordic region of Scotland, Ireland and the Northern France (Normandy). In fact, the Celtic festival of Samhain (summer’s end) marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of the dark cold winter. Therefore, the festival symbolized the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. During the centuries this celebration was assimilated with the Christian religion celebrating “All Hallows’ Day” that is “All Saints Day”.
The evening before “All Saints Day”, also known as Hallows Eve, later became Hallowe’en and then of course Halloween. And now what is left of this sacred celebration? Nowadays, it has become internationally a way to celebrate with unusual scary fancy dresses, distributing ghost & monster shaped sweets or playing scaring jokes. That is mostly the result of the American-style Halloween celebration, heir of the first English settlers in North America in the 17th Century. Tricking-or-treating, attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, telling scary stories or watching horror films, are just some of the commonest actions that characterize this special date.
Even this year the Mairie de Monaco did not want to miss this traditional feast thus giving a new opportunity for Monegasque families to enjoy the best part of this “dark” celebration together with their children (up to 12 years old). The welcoming open-air panoramic environment is the most suitable place to spend some time in the company of intriguing role-play games and magic shows by qualified entertainers.
«This is the eight edition of “Halloween au Parc Princesse Antoinette” which is basically a complimentary big game to entertain families for the whole afternoon (3 hours) allowing them to ride along within this nice public garden in their best Halloween clothes», pointed out Sonny Folcheri, press officer at the Municipality of Monaco. All paths of this olive tree and exotic plant garden were embellished with soft dreadful Halloween decorations to better thrill all visitors according to the theme that changes every year. The 2018 edition celebrated the University of Monsters in all its forms.
This exciting user-friendly event, gathering an army of little ghosts, vampires, fairies, skeletons and so on, is just the result of a fruitful long lasting cooperation between the Marie de Monaco that offers the setting and “La Boîte de Jeux”, a Monegasque association specialized in board games and animation.
«The 2018 edition, following the success of the previous year inspired by the Mexican celebration of “Día de Muertos”, is entirely devoted to all kinds of monsters just for a change. The children are invited to attend classes where they are taught how to become monstrous and then get the university degree. Special professors will help them to pass tests by collecting credits and letters forming a word that will tell them if they have been successful or not», underlined Cédric Duwelz, president of “La Boîte de Jeux”.
We can say that Halloween in Parc Princesse Antoinette pays its tribute to the old tradition perfectly considering that approximately 300 children, or even more, attend this event every year with an increasing positive trend.
