There is a perfectly innocent way to explain Boujloud. There is also a way to make it sound like the opening scene of a film nobody should watch alone.
The difference is usually where I start.
If I begin with people wearing goat or sheep skins, putting on frightening costumes and chasing people through the streets, every word can be correct. The explanation can still be terrible. Without context, I have supplied the listener with ingredients for a nightmare and called it cultural exchange.
This is one of the things I find interesting about speaking English. Knowing the words is useful. Knowing what those words are doing inside somebody else's head is another skill entirely.
For an American visitor familiar with Halloween, I would start there. Think costumes, a festive atmosphere, people deliberately looking frightening, and the understanding that being a bit scared can be part of the fun. Now there is somewhere to put the next piece of information.
Then I can introduce Boujloud, also called Bilmawn or Bilmawen: a folk celebration in parts of Morocco, associated with the period after Eid al-Adha. Performers dress in animal skins and elaborate disguises, with music, dancing and playful scares forming part of the celebrations. The details vary between places. Morocco does not come with one national costume department issuing identical instructions.
That is the moment for the goatskins. After the context. Please.
I am not saying Boujloud is Halloween with a Moroccan passport. They have different histories, meanings and settings. The comparison gives someone a familiar starting point; it does not make the traditions interchangeable. Nor do I need to announce which one is older to make the conversation work. I am trying to explain a celebration, not win an argument between calendars.
And I would not start with Halloween for absolutely everyone. If the person does not know it well, I have simply replaced one unfamiliar reference with another. Excellent vocabulary. Very little progress.
What interests me is that first impression. A costume in a celebration reads differently from the same costume described without the celebration. You can make almost any tradition sound alarming by removing the part that tells people why it makes sense to those taking part.
I want to keep the strangeness, the humor and the local character. Those are worth talking about. I just do not need to accidentally describe a crime scene on the way there.
For me, communicating across cultures begins with a small question: what does this person already understand? Once I know that, I can build a bridge to what I mean. Speaking their language gets me into the conversation. Understanding a little of their world helps me actually say something.