An American Halloween in Germany

The phone rang this afternoon. It was the local Newspaper.

Yes, Hello?

Good Day. My name is Mrs Blablabla from the Biberblaber Newspaper, I am calling for a Mr. Baden.

I am he.

I found your name from the official registration records of our district, and it says that you are an American. Can you give our subscribers a unique view on how Halloween is celebrated in your country?

Moment... only so I understand correct. You find me from official record. You know I be American. You want know how people from my country party about Halloween?

Yes, exactly. Can you tell our readers how Halloween is celebrated in your country?

Wow. It is good to know records like this are so open. OK. Halloween...

I proceeded to explain--using my 5-year old German--all the different things most Americans do during Halloween. I tried to tie in what I remember about the background and directed her to Wikipedia. I found that I was missing a few German words when trying to explain concepts like Pagan Roots and Bobbing for Apples. Our 20 minute conversation ended up with her asking if it would be OK to send someone around to take my photo for the paper. Absolutely Not, I replied...It's bad enough that I can be tracked down as an American living in this little pig-farming dorf... a photo in the paper is out of the question. So much for keeping a low profile. Time to move to a bigger city.