Halloween in die Schweiz

Today is Halloween. This year we are in Switzerland and we are finding the Swiss don't really do Halloween - at least not the way Americans do (which is not necessarily a bad thing.) Maureen's school has some Halloween activities, but then again, it is an International school. They had a 'Halloween Disco' for the Middle School kids last Friday. (She opted not to go in lieu of watching Stranger Things 2 on the day it came out on Netflix.) They are also having a 'Trunk or Treat' activity for the Primary Students tonight. This is when the kids dress up and trick-or-treat in the school parking lot with the car trunks open and parents handing out candy. A little sad if you ask me.

I have yet to see a Halloween decoration on a house here in Zug. There is a small display of Halloween merchandise in the Coop City grocery store: 

 And a bar just outside the Bahnhof has this going on:

On the Switzerland English Forum listserv there is a multiyear thread about Halloween in Switzerland. Prior to 2014 there were almost no Halloween activities in any part of Switzerland. From 2014 - through today there are more and more posts about Halloween activities happening around the country, though the most are concentrated in the Zurich area.

Yesterday, one person posted some interesting insights into how various holidays and traditions like Halloween came to be celebrated in Switzerland:

So it looks like it is a slow build of momentum for Halloween to be popular in die Schweiz, but we Americans are ready just in case we get any trick-or-treaters:

I wonder what we will do with any leftovers?

Even Smidgey is getting into the Halloween spirit:

She's trying to chase a cat - who I think might be laughing at her outfit.

The entire canton of Zug has tomorrow, Wednesday, 1 November, off for All Saint's Day. (Read here about the Catholic's influence on Switzerland, especially canton Zug.) My poem is based on what some may be recovering from on the day after Halloween:

Halloween Hangover

one too many trips
to the candy bowl
pick, pick, pick

today I feel sick -
my belly aches
ick, ick, ick!
©2017, Bridget Magee. All Rights Reserved.