In our German neighborhood it's not just the classic greeting - they mean it!
The kids had the day off school for a teacher workday, so we got to hang out, decorate the 'yard', and carve pumpkins. This was the first year that Bryan and Kailey ACTUALLY carved their pumpkins themselves and I have to say - they did a REALLY good job! Very impressed. Now , if only they would learn to scoop the 'ick' out themselves as well - Mom would be even happier....
It took them weeks of on-line browsing to pick out costumes. Kailey - Miss "I don't do scary costumes or go in stores where scary costumes might be present" picked out a mummy costume, of all things. And Bryan picked a really neat "Man-eating Shark". Both were great. Bryan had a hard time keeping the shark mouth covering on because he was hot. Kailey's seemed too 'generic' so I spent the night before soaking real bandages in black tea to wrap her up a but more. They ended up trying to come unwrapped and trailing her - but somehow it made her seem even more authentic..
We put our candy out in a painted Halloween tub and as soon as it got dark, we caught up with our neighbors and off we went. Here in Auerbach - we have 30 townhouses that are American housing in a really nice, affluent, German neighborhood. Mom decided Twinz didn't need to explore this time and so we only went to our military neighbors houses.
The Germans LOVE Halloween, especially when there are American houses to go to because they like our candy better, according to a friend. We got swamped with kids! Little ones, Big ones....The little ones are precious - they get dressed up and try their English out. They are very polite and say 'danke'. The big ones? not so much....
The older kids don't wear costumes except for a rare few, one of who just put a party bag on his head. They carry around large tote bags for candy and watch carefully to see what and how much you put in. One boy didn't like the candy I had in my hand so he waited until I dropped it in his bag, to reach over and take more out of my candy tub....
They rarely said "danke" - just "tschuss" ( goodbye) if they felt like it.
One thing that was a first for me and it took me a bit to figure it out was the odd smell that began after a while...It was incense. Many of the kids carried it with them as they went around. I'm guessing it is a custom along the lines of warding off evil spirits, maybe?
Then the night became kind of scary...
My neighbors had warned me that the local kids "trick" the houses if you are not home or just don't answer the door - toothpaste, soap, eggs on doors and windows. This night they added throwing canned goods at houses and lighting firecrackers and "Black Betty's" and throwing them.
One kid threw a lit one at a door just before Bryan and Kailey got to it - they didn't even notice it lit on the grund, but Kailey walked right over it just about the time I remembered that the cloth bandages attached to her body , trailing on the ground - were flammable...
Her guardian Angels were on duty,though, so it was all good.
The noise was frightening for the little ones and very often you would hear crying and screaming as some would go off...
...and I can only imagine what the reactions were to the firecrackers going off in the neighborhood of 28 men who, in the past 2 weeks ,returned from 15 months in a combat zone...
I didn't turn out the lights or quit answering the door until almost 10 PM and made sure it had been quiet for awhile, first....Still, the next day my neighbor Jason said he ran off some boys who were trying to set fire to some decorative pumpkins I had put out next to the driveway.
Geeezzzzz......
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