Finally our students were able to enjoy the most colorful day of the year! During weeks, Casvi International American School has been preparing for one of the most fun days for students and the entire educational community. For us, Halloween is not a typical Halloween with all the scares and terror. At Casvi International American School, as an international American school, we enjoy this holiday in a special way. Our facilities are dressed in orange, we cover every corner with pumpkins, and we welcome our students with their particular and different costumes to go through every corridor dancing and saying: Trick or treat, give me something good to eat!
Early in the morning, the first students arrived with their characteristic illusion. In the classrooms, our native teachers explained to them the importance of this day in The United States, and that there Halloween has a different connotation. Our students were able to learn the origins of this holiday, as well as that Halloween is synonymous with joy, color and fun.
Do you know what the origin of this tradition is?
Believe it or not, Halloween dates back more than 2,000 years, and has its origins in Celtic culture. It is called “Samhain” and on this day the Celts celebrated the end of the summer harvest and welcomed the ghosts of deceased relatives, who returned to the world of the living to be reunited with their families, received in their homes specially decorated for that great day. This tradition began to spread to different parts of the world, until The United States began to celebrate this holiday in a very particular way, what we know today as Halloween. The origin of this word comes from the variation of “All Hallows Even”, which means vespers of All Saints Day.
During the whole day of Halloween, our students carried out different activities in order to commemorate this day. They did this through crafts, costumes, stories, the typical carving pumpkin, and of course the traditional trick or treat, which generates so much excitement in the children.
Loaded with candy, and respecting the bubble groups, our students went door to door doing their traditional “trick or treat, give me something good to eat”. Thanks to this tradition, the little ones carried their bags of candies, sweets and lollipops. A treasure they kept until the last hour of the day.
How do you experience Halloween at Casvi International American School?
At Casvi International American School we do not understand Halloween as a “scary” holiday. With American culture as our flag, we bring to our students the true theme of Halloween: color, fun, and costumes of all kinds. In this way, we were able to find both vampires and dinosaurs. Others decided to take inspiration from famous movies to make their costumes, others even made them with their own hands, we even saw Michael Jackson in our hallways!
Original costumes are not the only thing that are important to us on Halloween. Decoration is a fundamental part of this great day. For weeks, both students and the entire educational community worked hard to dye every corner of our facilities orange. Without a doubt, this is an activity that has multiple benefits for our students, since not only do they experience a true cultural immersion, but it also fosters their creativity and originality, while sharing a fun time with their teachers and classmates. From spider webs, to carved pumpkins… our students proposed an endless number of possibilities for this great party.
Another great Halloween custom is pumpkin carving. Days before this holiday, our students started their traditional pumpkin contest. To do this, they usually take a large pumpkin, remove its outer surface and carve an image. The options are endless, so our students decorated the faces of their own pumpkins. During the day, they placed a lighted candle inside to create a luminous effect on each one of them.
This contest ended with a clear winner: Lia Fernández Freimuth, from Kindergarten. This is how she posed with her winning pumpkin.
With the celebration of Halloween, at Casvi International American School we seek to immerse each of our students in a true American culture. Our goal is to encourage the development of different skills that will allow them to improve in all areas of their learning. Not only did they experience moments of fun, but they also encouraged the use of English, since, thanks to their native teachers, they learned the typical words of this day. In addition, the celebration of this type of festivities increases their creativity, improves their social skills, and works on their psychomotor skills while improving their civic skills.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO EVERYONE!!
