Maroween: Halloween, the Andalusian way

If you think Halloween is an American invention imported to Spain with plastic pumpkins and bags of sweets, you should have been with us in Maro yesterday. The little white village just east of Nerja holds its own version of Halloween every year. It is called Maroween, and it is something else entirely.

It starts on the bus
We took the bus from Nerja, and it was decorated with skeletons, cobwebs and orange paper garlands from floor to ceiling. Stig could barely keep a straight face, and it hadn't even started yet. Another bus was draped in black curtains, and in between them sat a life-size gorilla, waiting.

A whole village in costume
The first thing you notice in Maro is that it isn't just a few houses that are decorated. It's the whole village. Balconies are wrapped in cobwebs, skeletons hang over front doors, and one front garden had been turned into a full graveyard with headstones, bouquets and a skeleton hand reaching out of the ground. There is a prize for the scariest façade, and you could tell. The neighbours had clearly been competing.

At the entrance to the village, two performers from La Carpa Teatro walked around on stilts, and everywhere there were little details you had to keep your eyes open for: a clown in a black frame on a white wall, a scarecrow by a palm tree and a man who had lost his head but not his sunglasses.

Children and grown-ups, all of them
The best thing about Maroween is that everyone takes part. Little girls with flower crowns and painted skull faces like the Catrinas of the Mexican Día de los Muertos, boys in witch hats, grandparents in capes and whole families in matching costumes. The children go door to door for sweets, and in the evening there is a costume contest, first for the children and then for the adults. Down by the viewpoint, with the sea behind them, the bouncy castles stood ready for the little ones.

Chestnuts, a pirate ship and a band of vampires
Maroween grew out of the old tradition of roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes around All Saints' Day, and that part is happily still there. Roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes were handed out as the parade came past with a huge pirate ship and a captain in a red coat. In front marched the band Charanga Vaso Largo in black and red vampire capes, with white faces, a tuba, saxophones and a bass drum. It was impossible to stand still.

Later in the evening there was a costume contest, a concert and a DJ until late into the night. We went home full of impressions and with great respect for a small village that can throw a party like that.

Going next year?
Maroween is held every year around 31 October. Take the bus from Nerja, as parking in Maro is scarce, and come early if the children are going trick-or-treating. A costume isn't required, but you will feel a little underdressed without one. We are already looking forward to next year, and then we'll be in costume.

Anja