Happy Halloween. I’ve noticed a huge commercial push for it in the shops…Lidl is full of costumes and sweets. In previous years we’ve had 2 kids at the door; this year I’m expecting far more. Anyway, I’ll be ready with my witch hat and “Shriek,” the pumpkin face I’ve carved almost every year for the past 25.
5 Likes
Ooooo, nice!
I was going to share ours which is far less sophisticated than that but apparently my file is too big and I need to go via a file sharing site. First time I’ve encountered that here and I can’t be arsed with faffing around doing that, I thought those days had disappeared Ali g with the demise of EF.
Honestly no more in the shops than the last few years. IME the number of kids doing the trick or treat thing has decreased markedly over the last few years, at least where I live.
30 years ago it didn’t even exist here (happy days).
1 Like
Do you see any backlash from this? Some of the locals near where I live are very grumpy about it. Last year, I saw a sign on their door which loosely translated read: “F-- off you [rant] with your sh-- halloween traditions. This is Switzerland not America [rant].”
1 Like
That’s an interesting question.
Where I live (a village of perhaps 2000 and a good number of kids) it’s pretty welcome from what I can see.
Perhaps it’s related to whether or not you have children?
Also, it’s not like at Christmas in the UK when kids would show up at your door, dressed normally, singing one line of “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” and asking for payment. Here they make the effort.
1 Like
In our small village one of the expat moms organises a small number of families that go door to door at places that have agreed to participate.
We’re going into Geneva tonight for Les Miserables so we will miss it.
But tomorrow Coop and Migros will have all that stuff at 50% off.
If anyone complained to me, I’d be putting up a sign on August 1:
F**k off with your Chinese traditions of letting off Fireworks for a celebration!
Räbeliechtli pre-dates Switzerland and is probably British.
I could make a sign for that too!
Difference is Räbeliechtli doesn’t really impose on those that don’t want it. Unlike T or T.
BTW there’s a vote coming up on banning private fireworks. That will be a yes from me although admittedly nothing to do with China.
Kids round here (mainly) only go to doors where it’s obvious that they are welcome.
People selling broomsticks, offering knife sharpening, selling photos of your home taken with a drone etc etc seem to come at all hours everyday.
I noticed you carefully only quoted Räbeliechtli and not fireworks - of which loud ones, a percentage of the Swiss population want to ban as it’s distressing to pets, horses and farm animals.
The ban was dismissed in government but is going to a pepople’s vote as Chinese ways of celebrating are apparently ‘tradition’ here.
(I wrote this before you added the firework bit to your post!)
To say nothing of the local wildlife!
1 Like
Just noticed somebody threw 2 eggs at our living room windows. Don’t know if it happened earlier this week - we leave when it’s dark and get home when it’s dark, but the yellow is quite bright.
Never had this happen before.
1 Like
Just crossed my mind that’s actually a good way to find out for burglars whether someone is home or not. One can have these artificial tvs or light on/light off system but who would leave eggs on their windows for days if present?
Asking honestly. I only know Oct 31 is Reformation day in northern Germany. Martin Luther, 95 Theses and all that.
In Switzerland, Reformation is assumed to be started by another guy (Zwingli) in another date. So, no big obsession with Oct. 31, Reformation day is only first Sunday of November.
So, people upset by Halloween can be either people bothered by foreign stuff or immigrants from Northern Germany. What’s your experience?
I’m not upset by Halloween, but I hate seeing greedy retailers trying to jump on a N. American bandwagon. It commemorates nothing, celebrates nothing and is diametrically opposed to parental instructions during the other 364 days: Don’t take candy from strangers;
Respect you neighbours privacy and property; eat sweets in moderation; etc.
Around here it’s a bit of a flop attracting mostly N. American expats.
If retailers ignored it, it would go away.
1 Like
My kids and their friends got verbal abuses from two old women in one year - and we warned them to leave out that part of the street. Otherwise it’s tolerated, even “embraced”.
1 Like
A North American bandwagon…
Anyway, our kids gave out the sweets at our place and everyone greeted them by name so hardly strangers.
2 Likes
It was one of the sweetest (pun intended) memories of growing up. We planned our costumes for weeks, sewing and fabricating wonderful crepe-paper wigs and wings and crowns. My sister helped us plan our costumes, and each kid didn’t know what the others were making…she kept them in a special closet we were not allowed to access. We knew the families in every house we went to–one of them even held an annual haunted house, with the mother dressed as a convincing witch and skeletons and dry-ice “fog” and candles and scary surprises. It was something I’ll never forget. Some families invited us in for cookies and hot cider so they could appreciate our costumes. The sweets were not the important thing. The crisp air and kicking through the piles of dry leaves ready for burning in the gutters were.
2 Likes
I took the kids out for Trick or Treating and it was a fun atmosphere. Many people had made a big effort to decorate their houses and wear costumes. There were a few impromptu bars giving out drinks and snacks with a halloween theme.
Everybody seemed to know each other and the kids greeted their schoolmates and gave tips on the scariest houses to visit. It was very nice for all involved. The ones giving out treats seemed also very happy to see the kids esp. the very cute smaller kids with their outfits.
I was with another family who let their kids eat the sweets non-stop as we were collecting them and he was having a ball. I was more strict, the kids could only collect the sweets and they were allowed to eat 2… after their dinner! 
3 Likes
At this pace they will last them a life-time
1 Like