Diseño del blog

11 sep 2024

Ana del Río

Halloween and Samaín: tradition or trend? 

We are approaching the next significant date on the commercial calendar, Halloween, and in Río Spanish School we do not want to miss the opportunity to explain the traditions and customs associated with these dates in Spain to our students.

Traditionally, in Galicia and Asturias, Samaín, the festival equivalent to Halloween, was celebrated as a time to honor the dead and prepare the home for the arrival of winter. However, in recent decades, the celebration has undergone a significant transformation due to Anglo-Saxon influence.

As a reaction to this foreign intrusion, many are trying to reclaim the authentic Samaín. Yet, it is crucial to ask ourselves to what extent the modern version of Samaín celebrated today truly reflects traditional practices.

The convergence of Halloween and Samaín in the commercial realm is evident. While Halloween has become a global celebration with a strong commercial component, Samaín has also been adapted to fit into the framework of festivals that attract tourists and consumers. This commercialization raises questions about cultural authenticity: are we preserving traditions or merely adapting them for mass consumption?


In this context, it is not difficult to find manifestations of contemporary fascination with anything considered Celtic culture in relation to Samaín: fairs, markets, music, and all sorts of products. The popular imagination about the Celts, with its romantic and mystical view, characterized by druids, rituals, and a deep respect for nature, is perhaps reconstructed and adapted from a modern perspective, distanced from historical reality.

If you are a Spanish teacher and you want your students to learn how to talk about this topic in Spanish, check out our lastest teaching material available in our shop:

Halloween en España. Samaín

Explore our shop to find many other teaching materials:

Speak like a native: expressions with por and para

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 24 Sep, 2024
The use of the prepositions por and para can be tricky for ELE students. That’s why, at Río Spanish School, we’ve created a whole lesson unit dedicated to this topic. Furthermore, since these two prepositions are so commonly used, it’s natural that they appear in many idioms and sayings...
halloween, samaín

Halloween and Samaín: tradition or trend?

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 11 Sep, 2024
We are approaching the next significant date on the commercial calendar, Halloween, and in Río Spanish School we do not want to miss the opportunity to explain the traditions and customs associated with these dates in Spain to our students...
Barcelona, mobile phone theft, spanish school

My mobile phone has been stolen!

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 26 Mar, 2024
Barcelona, the vibrant Catalan city, is known for its impressive architecture, sunny beaches, and lively nightlife. However, it's also important to be aware of a problem that affects many residents and visitors: mobile phone theft. In this bustling metropolis, pickpockets -carteristas- lurk in crowded places, ready to take advantage of any lapse in attention...

Lost in translation: false friends

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 20 Sep, 2023
Welcome to another exciting chapter in your journey to mastering the beautiful Spanish language! In today's blog post, we're diving into a fascinating linguistic phenomenon: false friends. These linguistic traps can bewilder even the most seasoned learners, but fear not! Río Spanish School is here to shed light on this quirky aspect of language learning.

How to use diminutives in Spanish

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 31 Mar, 2023
At Río Spanish School, in addition to teaching grammar or vocabulary, we show our students how the real spoken Spanish sound. One of the most practical and used resources in Spanish is the use of diminutives. Its main and best-known function is dimensional, that is, to explain that something has a small size:
Spanish slang about love. Girl with heart

Spanish slang about love

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 10 Oct, 2022
Many of our students have decided to study Spanish because they are in love -estar enamorado, or in slang, estar pillado- with a Spanish speaker, and since at Río Spanish School we always try to adapt to the needs of our students, we have designed a didactic unit on street talk in Spanish, which includes a lots of expressions about love. In this way, our students will sound more natural when talking about their relationships, especially if they are young.
expresiones religiosas en español, semana santa

Religious expressions in Spanish

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 13 Apr, 2022
As Lorenzo Rubio González explains in Religious Topics in Colloquial Spanish, the familiarity of Spaniards with religion leaves many foreigners dumbfounded. And it is that we Spaniards have grown up surrounded by the Catholic Christian culture and, as is natural, it has impregnated the language with hundreds of expressions that have crystallized in the collective imagination.

Expressions about work in Spanish

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 18 Feb, 2022
Many of my Spanish students end up moving to Spain and working in Spanish companies. For this reason, at Río Spanish School we have designed specific teaching materials for business. As an example of this, we want to share with all of you a series of expressions related to work that will be very useful to you.
boy loses train, arrive late to work

Spanish expressions about being late

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 22 Jan, 2022
There is a great debate on the issue facing those who defend the veracity of the stereotype, with those who defend themselves as Spaniards and punctual. What is clear is that the Spanish language has several expressions related to punctuality and our goal at Río Spanish School - Malta is for our students to know, understand and use them in their daily lives.

Are Spaniards always late?

By Ana Del Rio Zolle • 12 Jan, 2022
In every group of friends there is someone who is always late, and if there isn't in yours, then it's you. Someone said there are two types of people: those who are late and those who are unhappy. This is because the first are more optimistic and think that they will have time to arrive on time.
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