Halloween vs. corona
The year is coming to an end and nothing is as it once was. Corona has also made it clear to the last person: we can plan as much as we want, it will probably turn out differently anyway.
That's why I'm keeping it that way these days: I'm celebrating what's still possible a little every morning. This morning, for example, when the family was still asleep at an early hour and the dog was lying on his bed as if he'd been poured onto it, I trudged through the wet grass with bare feet. Coffee mug in hand, I looked up at the sky, which looked like it was about to weep. I took another deep breath and decided to enjoy everything that was still possible from now on - before the school, the office and my friends emailed, called and reported the first coronavirus case.
Inside, I spotted the Dracula cape that my son had left in front of the washing machine. A light went on in my head: This Saturday I have to make a pumpkin, hollow out the whole thing and carve a terrifying grimace. That's what the Americans do with Halloween, and that's what the Swiss have been doing for a few years now. It feels like the last day of October in our family has been the one where we eat early, because all the gangs of children from the neighbourhood ring my doorbell between 5.30 and 9 pm and blackmail me into giving them sweets while the dog barks himself into a rage. Not really what I mean by a peaceful evening.
On the other hand, some of my neighbours who ignore Halloween have a much quieter evening. Some put a basket of sweets in front of the door with a note: «Help yourselves, children!» (My children's favourite Halloween neighbours, of course.) Others turn off the bell completely, put in Oropax and ignore the goings-on outside. Still others put a note on the door. It says: «We don't celebrate Halloween out of conviction and don't give out sweets either. We're watching a film with our children.»
I secretly admire this educational consistency, even if it is probably culturally imperialistic or religiously motivated. The only thing I find a little strange is that these same children sometimes look excitedly through living room windows at all the other mini monsters and mini fairies ringing other people's doorbells, crowing trick-or-treaters and filling their baskets and bags full to bursting with sweets.
Because honestly, it's the combination of candy, ringing other people's doors and dressing up that makes Halloween so exciting. At least for my children. Being showered with sweets free of charge and officially authorised by the highest mum and dad authorities and being allowed to stock up on sugar shocks - that's what turns my children into enthusiastic Halloween fans. This has already led to one of my sons eating all the sweets in his stomach at once, with less than appetising consequences. So, as you can see, Halloween is something that my children have happily adopted, whereas I have more or less voluntarily. But resistance was futile (four children against me, my husband abstained, grrr).
However, it is not yet clear whether the Halloween celebrations will take place at all this year. In Germany, Bavaria's Health Minister Melanie Huml has called for Halloween to be cancelled this year. In Switzerland, too, various experts are calling for group gatherings to be kept as short and as few in number as possible.
I find it difficult to ban it. Because according to current knowledge, children at primary school level are not the drivers of the pandemic. The exact situation here in Switzerland will depend on the Federal Council's decision on Wednesday, 28 October. In any case, the sanitiser is already at the door. I could actually spray every sweet with it as a precaution before I put it in one of these baskets.
I think I'll do like Miranda Leon from Georgia. The mother recently told the AP news agency : «The children have already had to miss out on so much this year - school lessons, their sports clubs, holiday camps. I refuse to deprive my children of the joy of going on a trick-or-treating spree now.»
Halloween, a European custom
31 October is the evening before All Souls' Day, the day on which we remember the dead. It is the evening on which the veil is lifted between the living and the dead, at least that is what the Celts believed. They celebrated Samhain (literally «end of summer»), the last day of October, the beginning of winter and actually New Year. The Celts believed that the doors to the realm of the dead were open on this night. They dressed up to ward off evil spirits. According to another interpretation, sweets and lights had the meaning of showing the bags the way to their relatives, whom they wanted to visit on 31 October. It was Irish immigrants who brought this custom to the USA in the 19th century and cultivated it. According to legend, a light in a turnip or pumpkin helps to keep the devil and all other spirits away from one's house on Halloween.
