Preparing for Halloween in Quebec, Canada

Halloween is not really practiced in Europe except for the United Kingdom and Ireland, which I believe is where the tradition originally came from. Only the expatriate communities celebrate this occasion in mainland Europe. In North America thoughâ€”in the USA and Canada, Halloween is BIG. Very BIG. It is part of the culture.

I do know for a fact that the Philippines celebrate Halloween as it tends to copy everything that the USA does. I remember one of the Halloween parties I attended before where I came as a zombie bride. I basically borrowed my momâ€™s wedding dress, painted my face Geisha white and used red lipstick on my face as blood. Cool or not?

Nevertheless, when it is Halloween in North America, it is Pumpkin season as well =)

So whilst driving around Quebec region, I saw pumpkins (also called squash) everywhere. They are notorious and are literally omnipresent! I have not seen this scale of pumpkin promotion anywhere else, not in Asia or in Europe. So having said that, I find this pumpkin vis-Ã -vis Halloween campaign very interesting that I have made a decision to write a blog post about this today. Et voila =)

In Ile dâ€™Orleans, a country island near Quebec City, I stumbled upon this pumpkin farm. I did not visit the farm fields though as I do not have any intentions of buying a pumpkin and didnâ€™t want to mislead the owners as well, but I managed to take a few photos while the workers were busy loading off a new batch of pumpkins that were freshly harvested.

Pumpkins come in different colours, textures and shapes, and the popular types are the bright orange and curvy ones, or simply called, the Cinderella pumpkin.

Ah, this reminds me of my discovery of pumpkin soup when I was a teenager. My parentâ€™s house help usually make dinners for the family but I sometimes concoct my own food experiments in the kitchen. My version of pumpkin soup with egg was a favourite of mine before.

In Quebec City, I saw the initial preparations of Halloween in full swing. The City Hall of Quebec has dressed its main entrance to the nines! Lots of pumpkins from all sorts, ghosts statuettes, cobwebs and spiders, petrified black cats and a giant witch with her smoking cauldron was guarding the gates. Quite a big event this Halloween thing that the City Hall itself is endorsing it! Part of the local culture I reckon huh =)

I however do not like the pranks that go along with Halloween. Honestly, I really, really abhor it. Can you say I am glad we do not have this tradition in the Netherlands?