Every year on Hallowe’en I take my son and his friends trick or treating in our neighbourhood. I have to admit, it’s pretty lame. Over the years we have learned who gets Hallowe’en and who doesn’t. Many people are bewildered by children knocking on their doors. Some people give money, and some empty their cupboards of peanuts, pretzels, cookies, and chips. Many don’t even open their doors.  But last year I was truly upset by one old lady. I told the boys to ring at her door because I had once stopped to help her haul heavy sacks of leaves from her garden to the street when I saw her struggling. “And I don’t even know you,” she said sweetly. “Dankeschön!” She was anything but friendly when we rang on Hallowe’en. “I have nothing to do with your pagan rituals,” she said, adding for our information that October 31 happens to be Reformation Day and as such an important church day, even a holiday in Protestant parts of Germany.

For years my thinking was, the Germans have a lot to learn about Hallowe’en. Once a group of boys came around a week early, wanting to try their luck. Some kids don’t even dress up. This year the biggest supermarket in Heidelberg, which has a population of 135,000 and a substantial American presence, did not have a single pumpkin for a Jack O’Lantern in the days before Hallowe’en. And who hands out euros at the door? But now I realize there is simply a deep-seated resentment towards what is considered a commercial opportunity for the retail industry and a strange American tradition that has infiltrated Europe. Hallowe’en is actually being mobbed out of Germany.  The Deutsche Welle calls it a “struggle between religion and party culture”. When I told a considerably younger German friend about the incident with the old lady, she fully agreed and told me her children have to attend church on October 31, are not allowed out in the evening, and the door to the house remains firmly shut to trick or treaters. Our friendship has been slightly frosty since then; I knew she was conservative, but had no idea just how far off the curve she was.

Prior to 9/11, I took the kids trick or treating on one of the American bases in Heidelberg. I prefer a bit of a party on Hallowe’en, especially for the kids. I guess it’s my culture. There are some things you just can’t export.