Iceland Copes With A Cancelled Halloween

Due to the pandemic, many of the usual Halloween festivals have been cancelled, although the civil defence has not issued an official recommendation, Fréttablaðið reported this morning.

For example, Rósa Konný Jóhannesdóttir leads a group that organises annual candy walks in Borgarnes. Although the walks have been growing year on year, the decision was made on Saturday that it would have to be cancelled.

“I know a lot of people don’t want kids knocking at their doors these days. Then when we saw that the infection was going up a bit in Borgarnes, we decided we’d have to change our plans,” said Rósa. However, Rósa encourages people to celebrate with their kids at home as far as possible.

That said, not everyone is following Rósa’s lead. The Borgarfjörður Forestry Association is planning on going ahead with their Halloween events on Friday, which will involve a bonfire, cocoa and ghost stories.

In Þorlákshöfn, there will be a pandemic-safe Halloween programme all week, with a live ghost story broadcast on Facebook, as well as a car cinema on Thursday showing the films ‘Hocus Pocus’ and ‘Scream’ at the marina. Ása Berglind Hjálmarsdóttir, one of the organisers of the festival, explained that it is definitely smaller this year due to COVID. “It has seldom been so important to have a little fun and right now,” Ása said. “Trying to find some way to have fun, of course, within a certain framework. There is a group of women who are responsible for this and the parents’ association is also involved. This is a very solution-oriented group.”

In Reykjavík, Halloween Iceland‘s annual blowout has been rescheduled for the end of November. While this means that resident spooky citizens will have to wait to party like it’s year 666, it also means that they have one month more to plan their costumes for their famous costume contest. Hey—in times like this it’s necessary to look on the bright side.

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