Last October was the creepiest month of the school year in MONTSERRAT ROIG secondary school in Sant Andreu de la Barca.
In an ever-changing world where internet and social networks have invaded our lives and have become a completely necessary tool to communicate with anyone and anywhere in our planet, we constantly receive influence from festivities and culture from countries abroad.
And Halloween is not an exception. In fact, it is one of the American festivities which initially used to appeal mainly to kids and young people. Nevertheless, we have been witnesses of how people of all ages have hopelessly fallen in love with it. And this year our school wanted to take part in it.
Bats, monsters, zombies, witches, cauldrons, full moons, black cats, mummies and of course…pumpkins of all sizes knocked on our school door, and we, the teachers, welcomed them to come inside.
The Foreign Language Department was the first to prepare activities to celebrate Halloween. The youngest students of First of ESO made a handicraft consisting of decorating their classroom doors. And then, the unexpected happened. Older students and teachers loved the idea and demanded to decorate their classroom doors as well. In a couple of days the school adapted a creepy, frightening and lovely image with all its doors decorated.
Fourth of ESO students invented a frightening stories and the best one in each class was awarded with a special prize courtesy of the AMPA of our school and the Townhall: Free tickets for the PASSATGE DEL TERROR, which is organized every year by the Youth Association in the town.
Second of ESO students decorated their classrooms and unavoidably a sense of competition was born. There was such an effort that the best decorated classroom was also awarded.
It has been a couple of weeks full of vocabulary activities, narrating, singing, cutting, sticking and coloring, two weeks full of Anglo-Saxon culture…and yet the most especial moment was when teachers began dancing the most famous and spookiest song ever written: THRILLER, by Michael Jackson. It was not that the teachers danced for them, it was that suddenly, they stood up and started dancing with us. That was the most exciting moment for us.
Malgrat aquest èmfasi en la celebració de Halloween la riquesa de la tradició no s’ha perdut a l’ Institut Montserrat Roig. La Castanyera evidentment també ha estat present a la nostra escola. Des de l’ Aula d’Acollida, s’ha treballat la seva figura amb els alumnes nouvinguts que han pogut conèixer amb més detall una festa i una tradició que comparteix espai i protagonisme amb altres festes com ara Halloween o el record als nostres difunts, convertint aquest dia 31 d’Octubre en un dia cada vegada més conegut i més estimat per tots nosaltres.
Carmen Pilar González Bonilla
Departament de llengües estrangeres
