The Occasionally Magnificent Seven

Todos Casta-We’en!

Posted on by Anna

Since our departure from California in early June, we have not yet experienced any major American holidays abroad until now. We celebrated the 4th of July in NYC (where better?) and several family birthdays en route (Rowena the night before we left, Libbey in NYC, Rainier in the Bernese Oberland, and Shefler in Lucerne), but we had yet to be away from our people during a major community celebration. Which brings us to Hallowe’en, not only a favorite with the kids, but also a holiday that has a unique tradition in the US. However, Hallowe’en is closely related to the Christian holiday of All Saints’ Day (and All Souls), which gives it a foothold in most countries with a Christian, particularly Catholic or Anglican, culture.

So here we are in Barcelona, where there is yet another holiday celebrated at this time of year, Castanyada, best translated as “Chestnut Party”. Festivities include eating chestnuts roasted on the street corner by a “castanyera”, stereotypically an old woman in an apron, along with roast sweet potatoes, special cookies, and other treats. I’m not familiar with it in great detail, but it has elements of a harvest festival as well as an homage to the departed, thus making it a natural companion to All Saints’. I believe it has some Celtic roots, which for me puts it in that category, like Christmas and Easter, of pagan practices that have inserted themselves into Christian holidays.

Those who know me well know that I love any holiday that involves special foods, so these few days have been a joy.

Here’s a good example of syncretism. This is Rainier at his school for the month, the English School of Barcelona. He and his P6 class have prepared a class Jack-O-Lantern (pure Hallowe’en) that borrows its style from the Mexican Day of the Dead tradition as do many of the kids’ skull masks. The kids are all dressed in aprons (and one with the traditional headscarf) as castanyeras (representing the local holiday). During the party, their class handed out a roast chestnut to each student in the school.
The things I love about Hallowe’en, making homemade costumes, carving pumpkins, and going door-to-door in the neighborhood, are not easily transferrable between countries and cultures. They require an unspoken community knowledge that results in spontaneously coordinated group behavior. This is my argument against “scheduling” Hallowe’en for good weather and weekends. But that’s another tirade. What IS easily transferrable is the commercialism. Local businesses stock plenty of manufactured costumes and decorations like cobwebs and giant fuzzy spiders.
They also have cute little Hallowe’en-themed pastries. Which we like.
Guess who? Hint: this person refused to wear the wig for later trick-or-treating.
I think Europe will do well with Hallowe’en, given their ability to dress up and execute excellent facepaint in honor of their beloved football teams. Here’s Rainier representing Watford, his Premier League favorite.
Needless to say, the kids were desperate to go trick-or-treating, but other than a few specific neighborhoods that keep their events private, trick-or-treating as such has not fully taken off here. I suspect this will develop in time, but, since it does not churn the local economy quite as much, it will take longer than the more commercial aspects of Hallowe’en. We found out about a local party (labelled “Casta-We’en” by the organizers) in a public square in which the restaurants and shops around the square were handing out candy. Here we are headed down in our elevator (our place in Barcelona was on the 17th floor: amazing views!) on our way to the party. No Nelson or Jeremy because they were on an overnight trip to visit some medieval battleground in northern Spain.
Here’s Libbey scoring a giant bag of Haribo gummies. That was one of two treats they got before the next shop informed us that we were supposed to buy wristbands in advance to be eligible for the handouts. We promptly got in line for wrist-bands, only to be told after waiting for a few minutes that the businesses had basically run out of candy and that they were not selling wristbands any more. Sad. So we went out for ice cream and came home to eat the candy we had purchased in case of just such a disaster. I feel that adequate glucose and related simple carbohydrates were consumed, but the kids felt otherwise.
At the risk of invading Rainier’s food review territory, I present these delicious cookies, called “panellets” (little bread) in Catalan, that are specially made for and eaten on Castanyada. They are like fluffy marzipan blobs with tons of crunchy sugar and various flavorings. The ones studded with pine nuts are the most typical and were being sold everywhere. Naturally, I couldn’t resist buying a bunch to try. Sadly, the rest of my family didn’t like them much and I ended up eating too many so they wouldn’t go to waste.
The folks you may not recognize are new friends of ours, the Romanenkos. Rainier made friends with Dima (back row, 3rd from left) at school, and so we had (first row, from left) his grandmother, mom, and dad over for dinner for All Saints’. They are a traveling family like us, although at a somewhat slower pace, and have been in Barcelona since August. They are considering the US for their next location. It was a delight to meet up with another family muy simpatica!

Stay tuned for how I am going to find a turkey in Marrakech…

3 thoughts on “Todos Casta-We’en!”

    • Indiana Jones was unfortunately unable to find an oven large enough to roast a whole turkey, and was content with a tagine made with turkey parts.

  • So fun to see these traditions abroad! You’re amazing for attempting to recreate. Fun to “see” you all! How cool the kids get to go to school abroad

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