The Witching Hour

Last Saturday evening after dark, Kaiserslautern held its third annual Halloween City-Parade through the downtown streets. The parade a year ago apparently brought out 80,000 people, and this year’s events were heavily attended as well. A lot of the spectators were in costume since nice prizes were being offered and since the children’s parade had happened earlier in the day. The young ghost and witch in the photo above were impatient for the parade to start.

Halloween is not a celebration native to Germany, and when we lived here before, no one trick-or-treated except for the American children. But thanks to our movies and television shows–not to mention the strong American presence in the area–Halloween is starting to catch on here. After all, no child needs a thousand years of entrenched local custom to convince him it’s a good idea to dress up in a cool costume and eat extra candy. And the German adults we were with on Saturday night said the events made for a pleasant change from the Fasching parades they’re used to.

Here’s something you won’t see in an American Halloween parade. Glühwein is a spiced wine drink traditionally served at Christmastime.

Nothing says “Boo!” like a bunch of dead Bavarians. Apparently, you can take it with you–if it’s beer.

The ZAK (Zentrale Abfallwirtschaft Kaiserslautern) sanitation workers did a great job. They dressed up a backhoe to be a dragon. It roared and spouted “smoke” as it lurched along.

Of course, this author was happy to see that dead maids were well represented. This is one of the Kaiserslautern Pikes American Football Club cheerleading squads.

To read my latest blog posts, please click on the “Green and Pleasant Land” logo at the top of this page. Photos taken in October, 2011, at the third annual Kaiserslautern Halloween City-Parade, Kaiserslautern, Germany. Text and photos copyright 2011 by Clare B. Dunkle.