Halloween without trick-or-treating, really?

Halloween without candy is like sausage without sauerkraut, or something like that. In other words, according to most children, essential. Well this year we did it. We had no trick-or-treating, no begging for candy, no screaming children at our door demanding more, more, MORE.

It was quiet, peaceful even. And we still had fun.

Apparently Halloween was quite the controversy in our little international school this year. Traditionally the school was American based. As in, established during the occupation of Germany by the allied forces after WWII.

Being American, all traditions American were observed at the school, including Halloween.

This tradition continued even after the wall came down, the government moved from Bonn in West Germany to Berlin, and the occupied forces were no longer necessary. The American school became "International" and the "American compound" (located just across the street from the school), which housed thousands of American troops and civilians in the 1950s, began to fill with UN employees, other foreigners living in transition in Bonn and a few Germans.

The school however retained its traditions. Halloween stuck. Kids had parties in their classrooms and went trick-or-treating at the American compound.

So how did Halloween become controversial? Why take away the parties? Why ban trick-or-trunking? (a fun idea where parents would decorate their cars and hand out candy from the trunks, so no houses would be disturbed with crazy American kids ringing doorbells dressed as vampires and Hannah Montana). Was this a conspiracy to assert Internationalism over Americanism?

Actually nothing so sinister was in play, though I did hear the rumors. But the powers that be questioned why Halloween was still given precedence over Divali or Eid. Or the Czeck St. Wenceslas day or the Swedish St. Lucia for that matter. The possibilities are endless when there are 60 different countries and their holidays to choose from.

Instead the school came up with the crazy idea of focussing on local holidays instead. The German holiday celebrating St. Martin is a lovely tradition that takes place during the first weeks of November, just after Halloween. Kids may even get some candy, or at least a little man made of bread smoking a pipe called a weckerman.

The St. Martin holiday celebrates Martin, the Roman soldier who shared his coat with a beggar who was freezing in a snow storm thus saving his life. Children carry lanterns and sing songs in a parade around local neighborhoods. The parade is usually led by St. Martin on a horse and ends at a huge bonfire. Kids are given treats, parents are treated to warm spiced wine and the day ends with tired, happy families, sans copious amounts of candy.

Of course being American we did it all. Not only did we participate in the beautiful lantern walk for St. Martin, we also celebrated Halloween with the Girl and Boy Scout troops - costumes and all. We also honored our heritage with pumpkin carving and our very own haunted basement with our Swedish cousins who were visiting.

The kids may not have gone trick-or-treating this year, but they did not miss the candy one bit!