La Castanyada versus Halloween

One of the most typical products in autumn is the chestnut. This is the fruit of the chestnut tree, which are between 20 and 40 metres in height and grow in warm countries, such as Spain. The chestnut can be toasted or cooked with sugar, like “marron glacé” in France.
Tonight, in Catalonia, we celebrate “la Castanyada”, which means the Day of the Chestnut. On All Saints eve, people used to go for a walk in their city or village and buy this product in small stalls in the street. A long time ago, “les castanyeres”, women who sell this fruit, used to wear very warm clothes and woollen hat and gloves because of the cold weather in this season. Nowadays, these women have almost disappeared and students, who want to earn some money for their student trip, have replaced them. They also wear different clothes, which are not so warm. They even wear short sleeves because the weather has also changed.
As well as the chestnuts, Catalans also eat “panellets”. It’s a kind of small, round cake made of flour, eggs, sugar, toasted almonds and some lemon. To these ingredients, you can add some other products to make different flavours depending on your preferences: you can put in chocolate, strawberries, pinions… These days, pastry shops’ windows are full of them. Sweet wine or “cava”, a kind of sparkly white wine, are the most recommended drinks to have with the “panellets” and the chestnuts.
But, since Halloween arrived in Spain, things have changed. Halloween is a celebration born in Ireland and exported to the States in the 19th century by Irish workers. This celebration has its origin in the Celtic tradition: on All Saints Eve, people decorated their houses with phantasmagorical objects because they were afraid of dead people. Now, people continue with this tradition and even children participate in this party. Little boys and girls disguise with scary clothes and go door to door to ask for some sweets.
In Catalonia, children don’t do exactly this, but they dress up for school. Then they make themselves the “panellets” and eat them with the chestnuts. So, in some schools they mix the two traditions, the Catalan one and the Anglo-Saxon one.
I don’t think it’s a good idea. In my opinion, school is more than a place to learn maths, chemistry or languages. School is an institution that has to preserve the identity of the people living in the country. In Catalonia, we have our own traditions and culture and school must show them to the newly-arrived people in the region. Catalans are open-minded, friendly and warm. This is why foreigners people feel good in our country, but our obligation is to show them our way of life and preserve traditions and culture. In a global economy, the only differentiating feature is identity.