Like peanut butter, Halloween is an acquired taste, as far as holidays are concerned.
I grew up in Germany in the 1960s and I never heard of Halloween until I came to the United States in 1974. I remember finding it a strange holiday, if one can even call it a holiday.
Of course, some people say it’s one of the oldest holidays, dating back over 4,000 years.
I searched and found that now in 2014 there are ten countries in the world that “celebrate” Halloween:
- United States
- Ireland
- Canada
- England
- Mexico
- Sweden
- Austria
- Belgium
- Germany
- Netherlands
Germany is one of them. But it wasn’t one of them in 1970. It must be that in Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, the candy and costume companies thought it was a good idea to copy what the mighty United States was doing. They imported a “holiday” that generates lots of revenue for those industries – money spent where it wasn’t spent before when there was no reason for it.
Halloween, the holiday of no purpose or redeeming value.