What’s Halloween like in Germany?
It’s October, the spookiest month of the year leading up to Halloween! I am actually always pretty excited about this time of year, I love the aesthetics very much and you could say it’s my favourite holiday! Since it’s the first time Halloween comes around while I am writing for this blog, I decided to make a post about it and tell you what Halloween is like in Germany. I hope it will be fun and interesting and if you still have any lingering questions about it, feel free to ask them in the comment section^^
First things first, technically Halloween is not a Holiday in Germany, meaning that you don’t get a day off because of it. But you will either have the 31st of October be a holiday or the 1st of November, that’s because most of Germany’s holidays are actually tied to the christian religion and those, in particular, are celebrated because of Martin Luther and his reformation of the church. I actually know no one who is actually “celebrating” that in any way, but still, we get a day off and I think most people actually use it to celebrate Halloween 😉 This is actually why some older or very religious people are against it being celebrated at all. They feel robbed in a way, but more on that topic later.
Similar to Christmas when the spooky season starts you can buy candies and decorations in every store. Sadly it’s not 3 months or more before the actual holiday, but we are happy about what we get, right? You can buy bat-shaped gummies, sceletons, and cobwebs to hang from your door, and of course pumpkins! Although I have to say that not as many people will create Jack-o-Laterns to put up in front of their door in Germany. My family actually never did, but that was less due to us not wanting to have fun carving out a pumpkin and displaying it and more about not really liking the taste of it and not wanting to waste everything that gets scooped out. Maybe Germans just are not into Pumpkin spice as much as the rest of the world is xD
Everybody is celebrating differently, some people like to lead up to the holidays by reading spooky books or watching horror films, other people only wait for the 31st to come, so they can finally dress up. These days it’s pretty normal for children to dress up in mostly spooky costumes to go around trick or treading, ringing at doorbells and asking people for candy. Because it has become so popular in Germany, most people will actually have something ready to give them. And the very advanced ones will have their whole yard decorated to scare them 😛 I always loved to dress up and run around, it was not even about the candies I have collected, in the end, I often gave them to my friends anyways. It was just cool to take on a role and present it to everyone. I did it until I was 15 years old, when an old grumpy grandpa open the door and asked me how I dared to participate in these child-like activities. At my age, he supposedly was already fighting in a war or something.
It’s not that I have lost all of my passion for Halloween that night, but I was less eager to around and let old people insult me for what I loved. Gladly at that time, I was in a theater group and every year around Christmas we were asked to get dressed up and spook around a shopping area, to make it more of an event to go shopping around the holiday. It was really great because we not only went from shop to shop and screamed at people, we did really make a show out of it. Sometimes we would do something similar to a zombie walk or we would try and keep still for about 5 minutes, which was actually what fascinated the people the most. It was also pretty great to just have more options on what to wear with all the normal theater costumes and other people doing the scary makeup for you. My favorite Halloween costume I ever wore and got to act in was a broken porcelain doll. I got special white paint which cracks up over time and a very cute dress and when I walked in the shopping aisle I tried to do it as puppet-like as possible. Sadly I have no picture of it, but it will always be one of my favorite memories.
There are Halloween parties too for all the people who are too old to go trick or treating but still want to dress up. I actually can’t talk too much about it, because despite my love for this holiday, I never went to one. Can’t really say why maybe because the opportunity never came up or because I imagined these parties more being made for people to get drunk and less for spooking around in costumes. I am sure those are fun for some people and it’s great that adult people are allowed to enjoy the Halloween spirit there too. Maybe one day I will go to one, this year I have other plans, but we will see if that will work out for me or not.
Lastly, I want to talk about people who hate Halloween in Germany. Like I mentioned some Christians have a big problem with it, mostly because they have a holiday of their own where the children are allowed to dress up and go around asking for candies. But I assume it’s less fun because you are not allowed to dress up as a mommy or witch for example and not nearly as many people prepare for it. If I remember correctly their holiday is in January and if a child would knock on my door then, I hardly would have any candy to give them. Old people also often hate Halloween, not only because of the experience I have made, with them thinking it’s only for little kids, but also because of how Halloween changed over the years. Because I would say that yes, the Halloween we are celebrating in Germany today, is heavenly influenced by how the Americans are celebrating it. But that does not have to be a bad thing, right? Fewer people complain about how we celebrate Christmas and it’s basically the same thing. All influenced by Hollywood films 😛
If you’d ask me Halloween is for everyone who can enjoy it. If you don’t like creepy crawlers or skeletons being hung up, you don’t have to celebrate it. If you feel like it’s too much, stay inside and not answer your doorbell, it’s totally up to you. But if you get any joy out of dressing up, running around playing a role, or decorating your house with cobwebs, don’t let yourself be stopped. Other people like to crochet, you might be into pumpkin carving, age really does not matter here. Do what you love and what makes you happy. I plan to go on a little celebration in one of the tattoo studios I got tattooed in this year. They make different events like pumpkin carving, preparing a spooky Labrinth, and Halloween-themed games. I don’t think I will be able to attend all of them, but I really like the idea and effort behind it. And after last Halloween was very uneventful because of Corona, I try to enjoy it even more. Happy Halloween everyone!
Greetings and good wishes
The Madd Hattress