Our streets will be filled with little goblins, ghouls and super heroes on Saturday as Halloween trick-or-treating takes over Idaho.
But outside of the U.S., Halloween as we know it is still largely a foreign concept.
Our reporter, Julie Luchetta, grew up in a rural French town of about 3,000 people where she and her family had some growing pains trying to introduce the holiday to their neighbors.
You can read the transcript of our conversation with Julie below:
James Dawson: How did you learn about Halloween when you were growing up?
Julie Luchetta: Well, my mom, as an American who at this point has lived in France longer than she ever did in the U.S., put a lot of effort into raising her children bilingual and bicultural. So as the one token American in our town, she introduced us to Thanksgiving, all the American cultural touchpoints that you may not have in France, including Halloween.
James Dawson: How did your mom or did she try to prepare these 3,000 French people in the countryside for Halloween? And what all comes with that from an American point of view?
Julie Luchetta: My mom single handedly introduced the concept of Halloween to the country of France.
James Dawson: Yeah, I think we're going to have to fact check that. And I'm hearing back from the producer that that is not true. But let's go on.
Julie Luchetta: Uh, we had to slowly explain to folks what it was because they were not familiar with the concept. And obviously, you know, France is a Catholic country. We have All Saints around that same time, but it's very somber. The concept of death in Europe, or at least in France, is taken really seriously. So the idea of kind of the garishness of Halloween is not something, uh, that French people necessarily understood immediately. In France, we have Carnival in the spring where kids dress up as a bunch of characters. Anything really. It's kind of similar to the way we approach Halloween here. So to distinguish it, my mom explained, you know, this is spooky season. We dress up in scary costumes, so the kids who did show up showed up, you know, as like zombies and mummies and ghosts. But a few didn't really quite get the assignment and just did not dress up at all. But I'm glad to say that was the first year. And after that, every year afterwards kids were like, got it! And we got some some pretty scary little muffins, you know?
James Dawson: Okay, so let's talk about trick or treating, because I could imagine if you have never heard of trick or treating in your entire life, and you just have this horde of kids dressed up in a costume and asking random people for food at night in October, they would just be so confused.
Julie Luchetta: Yeah. She just, like, pushed us out the door. Me and my ten other little French friends dressed up in, you know, whatever was remaining of the toilet paper mummy costume and just showed up with like a little our little pillowcases in front of the neighbors homes knocked and were like, hello. Let me introduce you to this concept from a country you never think about.
James Dawson: How do you even say trick or treat in French?
Julie Luchetta: Well, that's what I was trying to remember. What I'm thinking of. Sounds really threatening.
James Dawson: Which is fine. Let's ask Google.
Julie Luchetta: Oh my God, that's awful. That's not what it is at all. Google translate, come on. The best translation to trick or treat, which is Wordier. Of course, because French is so wordy, is, uh, des bon bon ou une farce. Doesn't it just roll off the tongue. Yeah, I, I think we learned very quickly that that was not the way to get candy from the sometime grumpy French neighbors. I'm sorry. What? What do you want from me? Who are you? And so we had a few folks who were like, um, no thank you. I don't know what you weirdos want, but I don't have anything for you. We had a few nice. I remember this really nice lady who was like, um, I have this open box of cookies. Do you want that? Do you want cash?
James Dawson: Cash? Straight cash? Straight francs?
Julie Luchetta: Yes, yes. Francs. At the time, she was like, do you want coins? Um and so that might have been the first year. And then I think in the neighborhood we, we got known for doing this.
James Dawson: So how is Halloween celebrated or seen or perceived in France now?
Julie Luchetta: By the time I reached high school, you know, you would see mostly marketing around Halloween, you know, some like some pumpkins in supermarket stores or perhaps like the local movie theater would have like a spooky movie. Um, so now it's more well known, but it obviously does not have the history and kind of the cultural weight that it has here. But again, I nobody knew what Halloween was when, when my mom first started making these kids dressed up in, in little zombie costumes.
Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio
