Happy Halloween and Castanyada! This October 31st both festivities are celebrated, Halloween belonging to the Anglo-Saxon world and ‘la Castanyada’ being deeply rooted in Catalonia. Are you planning to spend these dates on the Costa Dorada, Costa Brava or Barcelona? Book your shuttle bus transfer or private service now!
Both celebrations have something in common, death. Both Halloween and the ‘Castanyada’ commemorate death, with some similarities and some differences.
If we focus on the ‘Castanyada’, it is a ritual with funerary origins in which the dead are commemorated by eating products of the time of year, such as chestnuts, candied fruit, sweets and sweet potatoes. If you want to enjoy this day according to the ‘Castanyada’ tradition, we recommend you take part in a popular ‘Castanyada’ where you will find food stalls in the street, along with workshops, street performances and storytelling.
As for Halloween, it is a festival related to All Saints’ Day and death, as well as aspects of the afterlife, with dark elements of funerary culture, but with a great sense of black humour and in a more playful way. Participants dress up as characters from horror films or other spooky characters, and go house to house asking for candy with the famous ‘trick or treat?’
If you prefer to celebrate the day according to a more Halloween-style, among many other activities, you can celebrate it at PortAventura World, where you can enjoy the many attractions and meet terrifying creatures, as well as horror shows and feel the adrenaline rush of the secret passages.
Now that you know a little more about the similarities and differences between Halloween and the ‘Castanyada’, have you decided how you prefer to celebrate October 31st this year? Remember that in addition to our transfers from Barcelona el Prat airport, Barcelona Port and Reus airport, we also provide services to the AVE Camp de Tarragona station.