Have I ever mentioned that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year?
Outrageous costumes, pumpkins, witches, trick-or-treating, chocolate, candy corn, ringing doorbells, accumulating a candy haul of momentous proportions, little boys and girls proudly displaying their costumes, bobbing for apples, dried cornstalks, dressing up, jack-o-lanterns, deciding who you want to ‘be’, parties, ghosts, caramel apples, broomsticks, cold late October evenings, vampires, cobwebs, costume parties, witches’ brew, staying up late to count your candy haul…
Did I mention chocolate?
This is our third Halloween here in The Netherlands, and needless to say, I am excited!
We’ve been decorating the house, greeting trick-or-treaters and handing out candy for I don’t know how many years. So on our first Halloween here in Den Haag, I didn’t know what to expect.
But I am of the Kevin Costner/Field of Dreams mindset: ‘If you build it, they will come.’
Or rather, ‘if you buy the candy, they will come’.
I did, and they did. All four of them, two sets of neighbor’s children.
Last year, word had gotten around about the lone Americans on the block. Rather than barricade ourselves into our gezellig (cozy) family room, we were amenable not only to opening the door when the doorbell rang, but we were prepared. With candy. Which we were willing to give out. Imagine!
The grand tally on last year’s trick-or-treaters was a whopping sixteen. I still recognized the two groups of Dutch neighbors, but the others were a mix of Dutch and internationals. We didn’t know them, but they sure knew of us.
So this year I was thinking along the lines of twenty or so.
Then my neighbor stopped by. Seems that as the numbers grew of local internationals in general and Americans in particular, Halloween has taken off in various parts of Nederland. Okay, perhaps that’s an overstatement. But it’s definitely growing.
Anneke wanted to check to make sure we were intending on being home and giving out candy to trick-or-treaters.
Say what? Is the Pope Catholic? Does day follow night? Is Mount Everest the tallest mountain in the world?
Of course we would be celebrating Halloween. Natuurlijk!
Anneke explained that this year a group was getting together and going to a string of houses that would be giving out candy, and she wanted to make sure it was okay to stop by. With thirty kids.
Thirty kids.
Woohoo! We are having us a big ol’ traffic jam gaggle of trick-or-treaters tonight!!*
And on that note, I’ll leave you with a Halloween photo kindly provided by occasional guest blogger Gry Tina Tinde:
Image credit: Tiril Ligaya Tinde
Set Decoration: Gil Tinde
* Final tally was 93 trick-or-treaters! Seriously, our neighborhood was abuzz for more than two hours. I think the Dutchies are grooving on Halloween. I am so happy!
I am glad you had so much fun! The evening has only just begun here in Jamaica – where for some reason there is no tradition at all of Halloween (although I thought there would be from the British influence at least – we always celebrated it at home). In fact, many Jamaicans don’t see it as fun at all, but shun it as “devil worship” and somehow very sinister. But of course the kids love it – and in Jamaica there is any excuse for a party!! But I work at the US Embassy – where our cafeteria has been beautifully decorated with black tablecloths, cobwebs, pumpkins etc., so I’ve had a taste of it!
Glad you were able to get your little fix of Halloween. I was so thrilled that all of the kids (and several parents as well) really got into the fun spirit here. Daughter said it reminded her of an active Halloween back in the US.
Hello! We too decorated our house and had candy ready. 1 child came and not even dressed up! Don’t think Halloween has reached this far yet!!
Well if we’re any indication, you will start to see waves of Dutchies (okay, perhaps 2s or 3s) any year now!
The Dutch have already a long tradition of a kind of Halloween in certain parts of the country. It’s called Sint Maarten on the 11th of November. Children will come by at the door and sing a song and in favour they get candy. Not a very big event, though…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin's_Day
Welkom and thanks Noot for the info on Sint Maarten and the link. A few groups did sing on Halloween, I guess they thought they’d go ahead and hedge their bets by performing a Sint Maarten song!