A few years ago, I was sitting down at a food court in some upper floor of a shopping area above Cuatro Caminos metro station of Mexico City.
There was some occasion happening that night where I made sure to buy my then girlfriend some flowers and a little bit of ice cream for both of us.
It must’ve not been that important because I don’t remember what the occasion was.
Her birthday was in December and mine in September and this happened around October 31st.
So your guess is as good as mine for why I had flowers that day.
Anyway, she showed up finally after being a little bit late given her bus back from her hometown in Hidalgo was a bit late.
When she did, I remember she brought me a gift too – black iced tea.
Doesn’t sound like music but readers know I like black iced tea a lot.
It’s a good way to make me feel good!
Anyway, I saw her coming along and she wanted to show up as a surprise so I wouldn’t see the gift ahead of time.
I saw the gift anyway.
But then we had dinner eating here.
While we were eating, I saw some little kids doing a “trick or treat.”
In all my years living in Mexico City, it’s one of the few times I’ve seen kids seemingly celebrate Halloween by doing “trick or treat.”
It doesn’t happen often among most of them it seems.
But you do have some!
They were dressed in costume.
I think one of them was some superhero character and the other a ghost?
And one of them had a pumpkin basket carrying around whatever he got.
So they stopped in front of the Burger King that was within eyesight and asked for anything.
“Trick or Treat!” he said.
The employee over the counter said that they don’t have anything to give unfortunately.
The kids carried on.
In that moment, I remember asking Brenda (my girlfriend) about Halloween in Mexico.
Do they celebrate it here?
I had seen some kids celebrate Halloween in the same way before I met her but it really isn’t that much.
So are these kids just children of some American parent who is making them “trick or treat” to random businesses or what is this?
She said that there’s a few kids who celebrate it that way but it’s not overly common.
Back in my hometown in Iowa, I remember spending hours every year trick or treating until whenever I grew out of it.
And I wouldn’t go to businesses like Burger King.
What would you expect from Burger King?
A free small order of French fries?
Assumingly, Burger King would’ve given some candy if they had it.
I can’t imagine Mexicans giving out French fries for the occasion.
Maybe some tacos de pastor or tequila instead…
Shit, if they gave tequila out for free, I’d trick or treat again!
Just tell them I’m a very grown up looking kid….
“SI SI tengo 7 años. POR QUE LA PREGUNTA?!?! NO ME CREES?!?! YA DAME LA TEQUILA, CABRON”
Anyway, let’s wrap this up with my thoughts on the matter and what else I can find on Youtube.
So Do Mexicans Celebrate Halloween?
Since Halloween is coming up after all, I figured it’d be a good time to cover this topic.
So do Mexicans celebrate Halloween and how?
Well, as I said, you do have some kids who celebrate it in Mexico City.
Honestly, I can’t tell you if they celebrate it elsewhere in Mexico.
Being that Brenda was from Hidalgo, I guess maybe some do in Hidalgo?
When I lived there for a year, I didn’t see any kids celebrating it though.
But she was from a small town. Perhaps it’s different there?
And I was only there for a year.
Anyway, as you can guess, it does seem that, for those few kids who do celebrate Halloween, it’s more common for them to ask random stores or businesses for candy than random people’s houses.
At least from what I have seen!
I have never seen a kid knock on someone’s door for candy but I have seen them do it to places like Burger King and other stores or fast food chains also.
Outside of that, what about Halloween for us adults?
In Mexico City anyway, I have seen some mentioning of Halloween.
Be it bars offering discounts for the occasion or maybe Halloween get together events for adults to attend some party or event.
For the bars and events, at least from what I’ve seen, what I said above seems to be more common in touristy areas.
I haven’t gone to too many bars recently in the last year so I can’t say how common it is really.
But it is something I have noticed.
You do have a few places that sometimes make something special for the occasion.
Given the location of these bars or events, I imagine the extra amount of tourists in the area might be an extra motivation for why they do it.
Like how I once went to a 4th of July house party in a Bolivian city called Cochabamba once.
As you can imagine, there were plenty of tourists at the party.
Finally, it should be mentioned that there’s another Holiday in Mexico that basically happens around this same time of the year called Dia de Los Muertos.
That holiday is MUCH MORE celebrated and important to Mexican culture than Halloween.
For that reason, I feel Halloween simply gets overshadowed by the importance of Dia de los Muertos.
it literally happens the day after of Halloween.
So I can get why not as many Mexicans care for Halloween.
Though, as I said, some do!
Anyway, enjoy these last minute videos on Halloween in Mexico.
Well, those videos sure do make Halloween seem more celebrated than I’ve seen it down here!
And outside of Mexico…
Is Halloween celebrated in other Latin countries?
Honestly, the only other Latin country I remember spending Halloween in was Argentina and I don’t remember any Argentine children celebrating it.
But I can only speak for Argentina and my limited time in Buenos Aires.
If you have any experience with this topic in any other Latin country, let me know in the comment section.
And follow my Twitter here.
Thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Matt