Happy belated Halloween!
I’m sure some of you are curious as to how a Berlin Halloween is celebrated. And here’s your answer: it’s not celebrated all to much, at least in comparison with the US. Which makes sense, since it’s a US holiday. But within the past few weeks the stores have gone from normal to Christmas decorations everywhere! I was baffled and slightly upset until I remembered that for them, that is the next holiday. No real Halloween or any Thanksgiving, so onto Christmas it is.
There were some people dressed up on the weekends, but, again, nothing like you’d come across in the US. My host sister and her friend were here and baking things and dressing up. A few kids actually came to our apartment. (Which I didn’t expect especially since we’re on the American 6th floor!)
Our IES Berlin student counsel was super rad and set up a Fall Kick-off party for us. They got come caramel and apples, had hot chocolate with marshmallows, and some spicy apple cider for us to enjoy. We also got some pumpkins for us to carve! So we split up into teams more or less and set off for about an hour or two cutting open, scoping out, and carving into the pumpkins. There were six pumpkins total (plus one that Caitlin bought for herself since it’s much more of a tradition for her) and we made sure to have them all carved before we left. The designs ranged from zombies, to Pokemon (I think?), to more originally designed ones like a dragon or a representation of a state.
IES also threw us a Halloween party on the 31st. It was a potluck so everyone was asked to bring some kind of snack or food, which there ended up being plenty of. Most of us dressed up and anyone who didn’t we decided to say they were the ticket checker that come through on the U and S-Bahns. There was music playing and movies being projected onto two different areas. The party was with the Language and Area Studies and the Metropolitan Studies group (who we call the upstairs kids, since they’re on the floor above us). It was nice to mingle with others, but as with most parties of that sort, we mainly stuck to the group we knew.
It was still a good night. I wanted to head to the midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I wasn’t sure where it was, and I had class the next morning at 8:30, so it was definitely more appealing to just go to bed afterwards.
There’s still some remnants of Halloween around this weekend, if you look hard enough. I miss my American Halloweens though, that’s for sure.
This photo is an odd-ball one because for some reason WordPress doesn’t upload every photo I select. It leave about 5 out each post, but I really wanted this one. “Mittens and Kittens”
