DAY OF THE DEAD & LA CASTANYADA

DAY OF DEAD

This celebration focuses on gatherings to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. The celebration takes place on November 1 and 2. The day of the dead is celebrated on the 1st of november to celebrate life itself. This celebration is done in 3 days (the 1st and the 2nd of November).The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died .In this celebration people laugh of death to show that you are not afraid of it. Graves are decorated with offerings such as candles and flowers and goyeté (a bread). People gets dressed as skeletons and children go to “feed the skull” ; they ask people to put money or sweets in their pumpkins., and people think that death childrens souls are coming back. In the third and last day of the celebration people eat mole and go to the graveyards. The day of death is a pre-hispanic celebration.

LA CASTANYADA

In Catalonia the castanyada is celebrated the 31 of October. In these celebration  streets are full of places where they do and sell chestnuts.  In these day  they also sell lots of panellets, people also makes them at home. Also for castanyada is typical to eat  sweets potatoes.  Another thing that we eat for castanyada is chestnuts.  

           

this are panellets                            this are chestnuts                           la castenyera

La castanyera, is an old woman that sells chestnuts

TOT SANTS

The day after la castanyada is called "Tot Sants", in these day people visit cementaries and give flowers to their dead friends or family members.

The day of dead and la castanyada are two completely different events. The food that people eat is different and the things that we do as well.

During this Halloween, I enjoyed participating in many traditions. Halloween was supposed to be on Wednesday, October 31st, but I only did half of the Halloween activities then due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy. The day  before Halloween, I made my costume for school, Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire, by painting my black clothes red, orange, and yellow to look like fire. The next day, i came to school wearing my costume. About a week earlier, we decorated pumpkins which would be judged on this day. My advisory's pumpkin was made to look like a doctor. We also had a costume contest on Wednesday, and I entered in the home made category. I won third place. On Saturday, I trick or treated. First, I dressed in my costume, then I went over to my friends house and at six o'clock, we started going to houses on the street, and at each house we got candy. Some houses gave "fun size" candies and one gave me a giant chocolate bar. At eight o'clock, we went back to our houses, and Halloween was over until next year.
Here are some pictures of Halloween this year:

Halloween is both similar and different to Dia de los Muertos. In both holidays, people decorate their houses and stores for the holiday, although in Dia de los Muertos, stores are decorated with flowers and fruits, not pumkins, skeletons, and witches like in Halloween. Also, they both have something to do with the dead, but in Mexico, people honor the dead by making altars and going to cemeteries while people who celebrate Halloween try to scare people with stories or costumes of the dead. Although Halloween and Dia de los Muertos start on the same day, October 31st, Dia de los muertos lasts until November second. In both holidays, bakeries sell special treats for the upcoming holiday. The stores in Mexico sell pan de muerto, and the stores in the United States sell pumpkin flavored treats and cookies with symbols of Halloween on them. Also, people in Mexico are starting to incorporate some Halloween customs into their Day of the Dead. For example, some children enter costume contests in their schools or go trick or treating. In all, although Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are different holidays in different countries, they still share some of the same traditions.

Las Diferencias que Barcelona y Sewickley

            Hay muchas diferencias de la escuela en Barcelona y la escuela en Sewickley. Primero, la escuela en Barcelona empieza a las nueve y termina a las cinco de la tarde, pero la escuela en Sewickley empieza a las ocho y diez y termina a las tres y diez. Otro diferencia es que los estudiantes en John Talabot tienen desayuno en escuela y los estudiantes en Sewickley Academy no lo tienen.  En John Talabot, el amuerzo dura un hora y media y el almuerzo en Sewickley Academy solo dura  treinta y cinco minutos. La última diferencia es que los estudiantes de John Talabot estudian cuatro idiomas y los estudiantes de Sewickley Academy solo estudian un idioma pero ellos pueden escoger un idioma de éstos para estudiar: francés, mandarín, y español.

            Hay muchas diferencias de las familias de Helena y María y mi familia. El primero diferencia es que ellas sólo tienen un hermano y yo tengo tres hermanos. También, mis padres están divorciados y sus padres no están divorciados. Otra diferencia es que yo tengo un gato, y los dos no tienen un animal doméstico. Mis padres no trabajan pero los padres de Helena y María trabajan. Ellas toman un autobús para ir a la escuela y yo voy a la escuela a pie. La última diferencia es que mi casa tiene cuatro pisos y las casas de Helena y María sólo tienen un piso.

DIFERENCES OF SCOOLS IN USA & SPAIN

The USA's schools start at 8:10 and ends at 3:10, while the schools in Spain begin at 9 o'clock and end at 5 in the afternoon. They have lunch from 10:55 to 11:30, they do sport at 2:30. Spanish schools have lunch at 1 or 2, depending in the grade students are, and have sports 2 days a week in primary and 1 day whan they are doing ESO.