Hi from the Netherlands

Hi,

I'm new to this forum. I just looked around and saw all your pretty work. Wow!

I'm Marinka, from the Nertherlands. My Englisch is not that great, so I hope you understand what I'm babbeling. I have paint, wich I use on my dauchter and her friends. Her face mainly
I hope to learn a lot of neat tricks from all of you!

Marinka

Hi from the UK, Marinka!

hello and welcome!

welcome, and happy painting, and i love your avatar!

Welcome to the group!

Welcome! And your English is pretty good to me

Hello from Denmark. Like your profile picture =)

Welcome Marinka!!! I am sure you will learn a lot! Have fun!! Glad you found us.

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for your welcome!

My Avatar is me as a witch on Halloween. Here in the Netherlands its not that big a deal as it is in the USA, so a lot of people looked very suprised when I dit my last minute-shopping in my costume
It was my first facepaint on myself. *proud look*

Very awesome!

How sad... I absolutely love any excuse to dress in costume.

Yes! Me2! We introduced Halloween as a party at the school of my dauther (almost 7). De kids loved it
Now we have Carnaval comming up. That's european, I think. Half the county dresses up, party's everywhere and a lot of parades.

Oh, no, not european! South America of course...and Mardi Gras!

It is catholic in origin, comes from italic carne levare or something like that. Meaning remove the meat, since it was a feast before the lent, where no meat (fish was okay..) was allowed.
Here we have fastelavn, a mix between carnival and pagan/farmer traditions, including having a barrel filled with goodies and a cat (then a real one, now just one of paper) to represent the devil/evil. Then people beat it down like a piñata and a catking and a catqueen is crowned. The kids dress up and go from door to door singing and asking for a special bread and candy. The song say: if I don't get anything, I will make trouble.
But normally it is to cold to wear costume alone, so they have to wear jackets over. Bit of a weird sight *lol*

LoneWolf wrote: But normally it is to cold to wear costume alone, so they have to wear jackets over. Bit of a weird sight *lol*

I have had Halloweens like that too (childhood in Northern Alberta) but the fact that we got to dress up was too much fun to let the coat covering dampen it
When you have to go that route it's ALL about the make-up/ face paint then!

Welcome Marinka!

My cousin was visiting from Norway one Halloween and he was confused with the holiday. He thought it weird to dress up your kids and send them around begging for candy. I'd never heard of fastelavn. Maybe it's just Danish, is it in Norway too Lone? I heard Halloween is starting to catch on in Norway now though. Too bad, it used to be such a healthy country

I don't know about Norway, but it could be just Danish. Don't know actually

When I was a child I also "celebrated" Halloween inspired by the Disney comic books where they told about it. But me and my friend was the only one - almost no one else new about the tradition, so my mother would not let us walk door-to-door. But we did dress up and decorate my room with scary stuff and ate scary looking food

Weird how things change. It started in Europe with a feast to remember the saints (the 1. November, but then they had the day starting at sundown the previous day, therefore all the Christmas Eve, Halloween and so, starting the day before the real day) and the next day the one who had died the previous year. They also carved sugar beets as lamps. The tradition was carried on in America, where they found out that carving pumpkins was so much easier than carving sugar beets (it is true, I have tried, it is like carving wood). The saints was forgotten and the part about the dead was extended. And then it went back to Europe.

And as a side note it can be said that the reason why the celebration was that day, was that in Celtic/Pagan traditions (but also in Egypt and pre-Spanish Mexico) the new year began at that time under names as Samhain, All Hallows, All Hallow's Eve, Hallow E'en, where you looked back at the year that has passed. When Christianity came, they placed their traditions "on top" of the existing ones, to ease the passing. Like the traditions around summer and winter solstice.

But enough history for today

I love the history lesson! I'm big into knowing WHY we do the things we do. I have a whole section on my wedding website on traditions. I knew about 'All Saints Day' but didn't know about sugar beets. It's interesting how so many of the traditions we have come from the vikings.

Welcome Marinka! Keep using your English, it'll get better