Halloween

This morning someone from our school group posted about the holiday.

Here is a larger and slightly different version what was written.

The real celebration here this weekend is not Halloween but "La Castanyada". (Castaña/Castanya = Chestnut)Friends and families get together to roast chestnuts and moniatos (type of sweet potato) and the famous "panellets". These little pastries are all over the pastry shops, over 250.000 kilos of these cakes are sold every year. It is thought that they originated hundreds of years ago when people would take baskets of little round breads as offerings to those who had passed away to a (hopefully) better life. Panellets are easy to make as many of you probably know and kids enjoy helping with this recipe. The basic recipe is 250 gr icing sugar (or caster sugar also), 500 gr ground almond (almond flour), 3 eggs (sometimes cooked peeled potato is added too).
Mix together with your hands and shape into small balls. Dip into egg white and stick pine nuts on, brush with egg and bake in oven 180 or until nicely browned. You can add coffee, chocolate, coconut to the main mixture to get different tastes.
...and don't forget the Ratafia or Moscatell wine to wash it all down with.... ;)

 We are learning a lot about Catalonian traditions this year!

The local party store is decorated for Halloween and inside they had a small selection of
Mexican Day of the Dead decorations (Méjico Dia de Los Muertos) for 2 November.

The local Chinese store (what they are called here, and they do remind me of visiting Chinatown in a big city when I was a kid) they have an assortment of costumes and decorations.

The chocolate store has had decorations for a while.

The grocery stores have some displays, too.

Piruleta xocolata, or chocolate lollipops

Carbassa xocolata, or chocolate pumpkins

I've seen a few bags of small, wrapped treats.  The small pumpkins are sold in paper
jack-o-lanterns, although some pumpkins have black tape on them instead.

This bakery had candy acorns, pumpkins, and skulls to go with the panellets. 

The guys sampled one of each of these.  Maybe we'll make some on Tuesday.
We will definitely have castanyas and moniatos.  We'll head to the monastery

At school some kids dressed up and each class performed a dance, although A. said only the girls did for his.  A couple boys were willing, but didn't want to break from the other boys.  A. did not have a costume so wore a lab coat and at school they did each other's make-up and hair to look scarier.  Not quite like the mask parade back in elementary school!