{"id":4749,"date":"2019-10-25T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bracketyackrc.wpengine.com\/?p=4749"},"modified":"2019-11-09T04:04:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T04:04:30","slug":"derry-girl-for-a-semester-chapter-3-in-which-derry-welcomes-the-world-for-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=4749","title":{"rendered":"Derry Girl for a Semester: Chapter 3: In Which Derry Welcomes the World&#8230;for Halloween?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Written by Charissa Roberson<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here in Derry, the biggest holiday of the year isn\u2019t Christmas, or Easter, or even St. Patrick\u2019s Day\u2014it\u2019s Halloween. Posters have been up for weeks across the city, and even in cities across Northern Ireland, announcing the festivities that will soon begin. Costume stores have flung open their doors, and bakeries and gas stations alike have decorated their windows with spooky paraphernalia. Everyone is chatting excitedly about what costumes they will wear, and what events they will attend, and how this is the absolute best time of year to be in the city. Who would have thought?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hype surrounding Halloween is so intense that Derry began a countdown to the big event almost two months ago, and the local folk are not alone in considering Derry one of the best Halloween destinations. Come end of October, people from all over the world will flock to this smallish city in Northern Ireland, because here Halloween isn\u2019t just one night\u2014it\u2019s a week-long celebration, with so many events and exhibitions that there is an entire booklet just detailing them all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The festivities kick off with a three-day demonstration called \u201cAwakening the Walls,\u201d which occurs around Derry\u2019s 400-year-old city walls and is designed to \u201cbanish the dark\u201d as Halloween (or \u201cSamhain\u201d) approaches. Throughout the holiday week, people can attend various concerts in the city\u2019s majestic Guildhall, beneath the pale gleam of a massive Samhain Moon which hangs in the building\u2019s main hall. After five days jam-packed with stories, shows, food and drink, crafts, tours, and so much more, the entire festival culminates on Halloween Night with a Samhain Parade through the city center, followed by a spectacular firework show over the River Foyle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I certainly didn\u2019t expect it\u2014when thinking of Northern Ireland, I didn\u2019t immediately think \u201cBest Halloween Destination in the World!\u201d\u2014but I\u2019m excited to be here for the festival kicking off next week. And, as many people have told me, I don\u2019t dare go out without a costume\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2018Til next time,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Charissa<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by Charissa Roberson Here in Derry, the biggest holiday of the year isn\u2019t Christmas, or Easter, or even St. Patrick\u2019s Day\u2014it\u2019s Halloween. Posters have been up for weeks across the city, and even in cities across Northern Ireland, announcing the festivities that will soon begin. Costume stores have flung open their doors, and bakeries [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":4746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-folks-at-noke"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/derry-halloween.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}