Observance of Halloween, which dates back to Celtic rituals thousands of years ago, has long been associated with images of witches, ghosts, devils and hobgoblins. Over the years, Halloween customs and rituals have changed dramatically. Today, many of the young and young at heart take a more light-spirited approach. As a result, modern Halloween is often a fun night around the neighborhood, out on the town and sometimes a fun moment at the work place.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) consumer intentions survey released on October 6, 2009 found that Americans plan to spend on average 2.7 % more of their money in celebrating Halloween this year. The NRF provided a breakdown of average spending as follows: $24.17 on Halloween costumes, $20.39 on candy, $18.25 on decorations and $3.73 on greeting cards. Overall expected spending for this year’s celebration is expected to reach $5.77 billion. But these are only expected and projected numbers while Halloween is a time to have fun and enjoy your company.
Below is a picture of several employees from Allied Media Corp., whose mission is to help clients effectively communicate to the specific ethnic communities here in the U.S. and overseas. Last Friday, this diverse team with multilingual capabilities also enjoyed the end of the week in the office with a touch of laughter and funky costumes in honor of the Holiday.
Hope you had a Happy Halloween!
Halloween in Russia is not quite the same as it is in the United States. You will not see gleeful kids trick-or-treating on the Moscow streets – simply because Halloween is not celebrated among children in Russia. The holiday, originally brought to North America from Ireland, found its way into Russian night clubs about eight to ten years ago. Halloween remains new for the majority of Russian society, yet signs show that the holiday is gaining popularity among young adults. But those are Russians in Russia, how do Russian-Americans celebrate Halloween?
In the U.S., Halloween is quite popular among Russian-Americans, but to make it more popular they made this fun event a bit Russified. Russian-American nightlife during Halloween has never been this good. All of the popular Russian places in cities with sizable Russian American populations have special Halloween programs. Many Russian restaurants, bars, clubs and other places of gathering hold an exclusive event dedicated to Halloween. Although usually this event is decorated like any other Halloween party in the US: spooky decorations, carved pumpkins and guests in funky or scary costumes. Indeed, Halloween in the Russian-American community is customized specifically for Russians.
To attract the Russian-speaking crowd and those who like Russian customs, many places try to keep everything traditionally Russian: there is distinctive interior design, music, performed by Russian American DJs, delicious food, prepared by Russian chefs and, of course, Russian traditional beverages that make any occasion spectacular. Other than that, Russian Americans perfectly adopted this fun and perky event as a part of their life in the US. After all, it’s easy to adopt such fun, adorable and childish pieces of “American culture” and make it truly “Russian American.”
Elena Lauterbach.
Allied Media Corp.
Eastern European Team Lead
