Monday, November 1, 2010

I See Dead People

This years' Halloween was different in Berlin for some reason. I think the Germans are catching on to this thing.

First off I was invited to a real, grownup Halloween party thrown by non-Americans. Yup, they even had Halloween themed foods and the Eyeball Punch had the most potent eyeballs I've ever tasted.

The invitation said that partiers should show up as a dead person. Marie Antoinette was there as well as some characters out of books with the majority being real-life people. Eva and Adolf even made an appearance, surprisingly. The mix was good.

Like other costume parties of my past the people showed their creativity and ingenuity. The Phantom of the Opera folks were great. There were a few folks who just looked ghoulish with white face paint and blackened eyes, but at least they were working it, and if asked they always had a story about who they were supposed to be.

What I didn't see was the most annoying trend which was getting so big when I left the States. There were no girls at the party which had taken the opportunity of a costume party to dress as skankily as possible. No, there were no "slutty girl costumes" in evidence.

Amongst the ladies there was not one single set of kitty or bunny ears placed just so within the hairline, no push up bras to unnaturally accentuate cleavage, and definitely no leotard-looking things with cotton-tail bunny butt.

I must say that it was refreshing.

The only people I saw dressed like this were the group of 9 American kids in the subway. They were of course the loudest and drunkest group around. The girls were all dressed in the "skanky costume", and the guys were all showing their lack of imagination as well with the standard wool cap with the attached stick looking like it has gone through the head... oh, but let's put some fake blood trickling down the face and onto my shirt... that will make it look better.

Also different this year was an even bigger street presense of the kiddies in search of candy. Seven o'clock last night we were witness to about four groups of roving kiddies going from building to building in our neighborhood. As we were driving around the city, we also saw a few more groups. Wow, I don't think I've EVER seen that before.

I know they're a long way from having a costume day at school, but things are moving closer into that direction. Let's just hope they can avoid what has become obligatory in America... the Slutty Girl Costume.

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5 comments:

AstroYoga said...

I had a similar experience this year! There were no slutty costumes and we took our daughter trick o' treating to a bunch of houses. We weren't the only group either. It felt like the Halloweens I remember. It seems like most trick o' treating is done in retail outlets these days (while the sun is still up). It was fun going door to door in the dark!

Maria said...

What was your costume?

Goofball said...

Halloween in slowly getting introduced in belgium too, here and there there's a street with lots of families that organise a trick-or-treating action in their street.

I was amazed on FB however on the long list of "look at our costumes" pictures of all the kids. Man, what a business is behind! How costly it must be to buy new costumes for the kids. I thought children dressed more up from clothes they found but they all were bought ready to wear costumes. Gosh so much money getting spent, I can't believe it. So I hope it never grows that big in Europe as that parents are more or less obliged to start buying fancy costumes in order not to be left out.

Spudnik said...

Still no bonfires in Berlin though. It ain't Hallowe'en without bonfires and brack! But they're only beginners I suppose...

Anonymous said...

The Germans I've seen in costumes only seem to go in the ghoulish (sp?) direction. They don't seem to have picked up on the sweeter side of Halloween - kids dressing up as firemen or animals. I was Princess Lea back in the day and I don't think any of my friends went as vampires.