Halloween. I’ve heard of it. Kid-sized goblins and trolls running around neighborhoods, ringing doorbells, and making off with buckets of ill-gotten loot that would make the most hardened dentist cringe. It’s even trying to make its way into Germany, or at least the stores would like it that way, but progress is slow. But now, as an official immigrant to the United States of America, I have witnessed this mayhem first hand, and lived to tell the tale.

True to the Big, American Way I have discovered here, the entire (small-town) downtown was open in the afternoon for trick-or-treating. My brave companions and I, disguised as innocent parenting-pedestrians, stumbled along behind our children, dodging an array of miniature Michael Jacksons, Frankensteins, Einsteins, bleeding skeletons, commando-zombies, various classifications of vampires, and Elvis. Basically, a lot of dead people. Merrily filling the sidewalks around us, they lurched from shop to shop to mercilessly squeeze the sweets out of the poor, helpless merchants at their doors.

Then, after pizza at a friend’s house, we ventured out into the twilight for the local neighborhood plunder. Joining my daughter (Damsel of the Castle) was Gandalf the Grey, a Wicked Witch, a Corpse Bride, an Olympic Fencer, two Bloodthirsty Pirates, and a 12 year-old Scarecrow with a real ten pound pumpkin on his head!

What I enjoyed most about the evening was the abandoned way in which we were all allowed to be impish little Peeping Toms for the night, wandering around in spookily decorated front yards and loitering on cobwebby porches waiting for candy. And the Mad Scientists and Count Draculas answering the doors were just as uninhibited. At some point I couldn’t figure out if the people coming to the door in their bathrobes and hair curlers were in costume or not!

Since I moved here, I have been pleasantly fascinated, sometimes even overwhelmed, by the comfortable trust and easy lack of inhibition that empowers many of the people that I have met in my new home. They are so often willing to just be themselves, and accept those they meet for who they are. I found Halloween to be sort of a stage for that quality in America. I’m glad I caught the show.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 5:23 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.