An Italian governor has promised to impose a regional curfew on 31 October to slow the spread of coronavirus, branding Halloween a “huge stupid Americanism”.
Vicenzo De Luca, centre-left leader of the Campania region, which includes Naples, said the shutdown would begin at 10pm that night, amid a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases there this month.
"Halloween is this huge piece of nonsense, this huge stupid Americanism that has also been imported into our country," Mr De Luca said in a Friday briefing broadcast on Facebook.
"There we go. Halloween is a moment of idiocy.
"Seeing as we must deal with reality, and seeing as I’m hearing about people already preparing to have parties, from 10pm on the last October weekend, everything will be shut.
"There will be a curfew. Moving around won’t even be allowed."
Halloween has only recently become popular in Italy, but the following day, 1 November, has long been a public holiday in the country to mark All Saints Day.
On Thursday, Mr De Luca also announced he was closing schools in the region for two weeks.
Mr De Luca’s comments come just months after he threatened in March to send police with flamethrowers to break up student parties as the pandemic raged.
Yosyp on October 17th, 2020 at 15:14 UTC »
The translation is wrong. "Americanata" (what he apparently said) is not "Americanismo" (Americanism), it rather means "an occurrence that usually takes place in America that's being brought elsewhere, out of popularity / just because". It's not Americanism because it's a passive absorption / acquisition, it was meant in a bad way but not that one. There's no correct translation as far as I'm concerned, I'd say "American thingy".
BlueHeartbeat on October 17th, 2020 at 13:53 UTC »
I'm from his region and in case people are confused(they are from the comments I've seen), literally no one here celebrates halloween with children going door to door to ask for candies. Let alone the fact that most of us live in apartment buildings so it's not really practicable, but I don't think anyone has ever done that here. Halloween here is just an excuse for clubs to throw "special" parties to attract more business. Sometimes private parties too. So the issue here is not kids walking around town, but -mostly- young adults trying to get laid on a day that encourages large gatherings.
i-am-mittens on October 17th, 2020 at 12:56 UTC »
Australia tends to be very anti-Halloween because they see it as too American, but then a 21st birthday is a big deal even though the drinking age is 18. Halloween is a lot of fun for kids. I never understood why they choose that as the beach they want to die on.