Here in Germany, October 31st is just like any other day. It’s the next day, November 1st, which gets marked on the calendars, as  “All Saints Day” on November 1st is an official day off in many parts of Germany, including here in Tübingen.

Halloween is not a big deal here – it’s not any kind of deal actually.  I bring this up only because several people have asked me that question, so I figured it rated a blog post. However, there’s really not much more to say about Halloween here.  But I’ll try.

Today, in a very unscientific survey of at a variety of shops (drug stores, grocery stores, little markets, dollar-store like places), I could count on one hand the total number of things I saw that were nominally Halloween related (e.g. the metal skeleton keychain with creepy red eyes, and the sad-look plastic pumpkin-on-a-stick decoration). There’s just no special candy, no costumes, no tricks, no treats to be had. No carved jack-o-lanterns, although one outdoor vegetable stand had a sign advertising  “Halloween squash” (i.e. pumpkins). The stores are awash with Christmas decorations at the moment, not anything else.

Now, it’s not that people don’t dress up in costumes at all in Germany – they just don’t do it for Halloween. But the start of the costume season is almost upon us: November 11 is the official start to the Karnival season in Germany, which ends on “Fat Tuesday”, the day before season of Lent starts in February.  Up north in Cologne, they do start big celebrations in November that last until Lent. Here in Tübingen, though, based on what we observed last year, the Karnival celebrations (costumes, parades, etc) don’t really get underway until after the 1st of the year.

Anyway, in honor of the North American Halloween holiday below I’ve put a couple of photos taken of us by our niece and one of our nephews, and three of their cousins back when we visited them in August. They had fun with a program on my iPad that allows you to get some crazy fun-house-mirror style effects, which seems a good fit for photos to post for Halloween.

BTW, since tomorrow is a holiday, I’ll be taking the day off from Two to Tübingen (since I normally take holidays off). Back on Friday. See you then.

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Quick postscript: After I finished the post, but before I had a chance to post it, there came a knock on the door.

Well, actually the sound of the doorbell, but it doesn’t sound as poetic.

In any, 2 little kids who live in the apartment above us were standing at the door in costume, the little girl dressed as a witch (hat and cape) and her younger brother in a huge Mad Hatter-like green hat pulled all the way down over his face. He later explained he was a zombie.

Anyway, they recited a little poem, which we didn’t retain – Chris will ask around at work on Friday to see if anyone knows what they would have said. They were cute, but we didn’t really know what to do. We had some snack-size chocolates in the cupboard, so I asked the little girl – who was the older of the 2 – what they would normally get. She hesitated, so I asked “candy?” And she looked at her brother and then quickly said, yes, candy. Which I’m guessing wasn’t what they expected. But I don’t know what they expected, since they had no bag to collect their loot in. In any case, it was very cute. And totally negated my “Halloween isn’t celebrate here” post. But hey, I think they were the exception, not the rule.

That’s my story – er, blog post – and I’m sticking to it.

See you Friday.