Ghostly Haunts With Tape Parade!

Hi everyone! My name is Laila, and I write my own blog over at www.tapeparade.com where I document my life as a musician in London. Gabriella kindly asked if I’d like to share some of my Halloween traditions with you!

I actually find that Halloween is one of the holiday’s that has changed the most as I get older. As a kid I was obsessed with creating a really original costume and getting the most sweets whilst out trick-or-treating. During my teenage years I was more likely to spend Halloween with friends camped out in a graveyard or trying to score some alcohol from whatever corner shop looked most oblivious. These days I think Halloween has morphed into a series of house parties and nights out at terrible “themed” pub events. The UK is a lot more invested in Halloween these days then when I was a kid - most shops will have a Halloween section and there’s definitely a surge of Halloween blog posts around this time of year.

As an adult I have a few new traditions. I live in London, and we have a lot of great cinemas, so it’s never been hard to find a horror screening around Halloween. Highlights have included ‘The Shining’ on the biggest screen at The BFI, and ‘Psycho’ in a tiny backdoor cinema last year. I also have a renewed interest in visiting haunted locations - last year I visited a haunted pub with my friends. London is such an old city that there are tons of historical and supposedly haunted locations to visit if you’re so inclined! I’m always on the look-out for new Halloween ideas as well - such as Halloween afternoon tea, something I tried for the first time last year and really enjoyed.

As far as older traditions go, there’s a few things I do each year. I like to delve into the world of the novelty song when Halloween rolls around - The Monster Mash and so on - and I also enjoy listening to “spooky” podcasts. I do this all year round - I love unexplained mysteries and eerie phenomena - but it feels a little more fitting this time of year! Whilst I’m obviously too old to trick-or-treat these days, I’m still a big fan of dressing up, so if there’s a Halloween party and option to throw a costume on then I’m all over it. I’m not sure that’s one tradition I’ll outgrow anytime soon!