For seniors, it’s an obscure custom imported from the United States. For children, young people and meanwhile more and more adults a new, welcome reason to celebrate. People in Germany dress up for Halloween too. Children go from house to house demanding gifts with the slogan “trick or treat”.
The Halloween festival originated in Ireland. While it was assumed for a long time that Halloween had its roots in an old Celtic thanksgiving custom, science today assumes a purely Christian origin: Accordingly, the name derives from “All Hallows’ Eve” – the evening before All Saints’ Day. It was shortened to “Halloween” over time. The custom came to the USA in the 19th century via Irish emigrants. That’s where the pumpkin, so typical of Halloween, came into play, and the custom arose for children to go from house to house asking for candy – or threatening pranks.
The custom has meanwhile spread to Germany. Halloween began to appear in Germany at the end of the 1990s, as Walter Grünzweig, Professor of American Studies at the TU Dortmund, explains. It started harmlessly at first: Newspapers and magazines published the first short articles about the new phenomenon. Then Halloween rolled across the country like an avalanche, says Grünzweig in an interview with the star. More and more pubs and confectionery manufacturers have adapted to this trend. However, the general public has only been celebrating Halloween in Germany since the new millennium.
But how exactly did this American custom become so popular in Germany? The “Carnival Section of the German Association of the Toy Industry (DVSI)” claims to have brought Halloween to Germany on its own. The specialist group came into being after the 1991 carnival was canceled due to the Gulf War, which caused massive losses for the costume manufacturers. In order to create new occasions, the group launched a campaign to introduce the American custom in 1994. A press release from 2009 states: “In the early 1990s, the cornerstone for a new tradition in Germany was laid, spurred on by the public relations work of the Carnival section of the German Association of the Toy Industry: Halloween.”
The campaign was apparently successful: According to the “Carnival” section, sales of Halloween items in 2009 totaled almost 30 million euros. According to the Federal Association, the scary festival is the third most important event of the year for the confectionery industry after Christmas and Easter. And event gastronomy has also jumped on the bandwagon and is ensuring full houses with Halloween parties.
A whole new custom, initiated solely by a small interest group – is that possible? Gunther Hirschfelder, Professor of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Regensburg, has been researching Halloween for a long time. He has not yet come across the “Carnival Section”. He sees the reason for the success above all in the social need for new customs. “People as social beings long for traditions that structure their lives,” says Hirschfelder. Halloween fills a cultural vacuum that arose in the 1990s: Christian holidays have long been losing importance, and globalization is contributing to the disappearance of regional traditions. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, major sporting events and, of course, Halloween fill this gap. According to the cultural scientist, all these celebrations have one thing in common: They are non-binding, should be fun and there is a commercial interest.
The Americanist Grünzweig sees another gap that was filled by Halloween: between the summer holidays and carnival there was no reason for a party before. But why did Halloween become established – and not another custom? Hirschfelder explains this with the advent of private television in the mid-1980s: the private channels have increasingly shown Hollywood films that previously had no chance in public service programs, scary shockers like “Halloween” for example. As a result, the Germans became familiar with this festival. Nowadays, new customs are primarily conveyed by television or the Internet.
The clear symbolism is another reason for the rapid triumph of Halloween: the pumpkin is a powerful sign that immediately makes everyone think of Halloween. And: It fits into the social development, which is moving from sacred to seasonal symbolism. Many shop windows and apartments are decorated with leaves and pumpkins in autumn.
The resounding success of the horror festival can only be understood against this background. Gunther Hirschfelder even thinks it is possible that the toy industry with its “Carnival Specialist Group” may have strengthened this tendency. Something like this has happened before in history: In the 1920s, for example, the Association of German Flower Shop Owners enforced Mother’s Day in Germany with posters “Honor the Mother”.
Whoever is ultimately responsible for the introduction – Germany is celebrating Halloween again this year with scary parties and hollowed-out pumpkins. The nice thing is that if you don’t want to take part, you don’t have to. However, it is recommended to have plenty of sweets in the house on Tuesday. Otherwise there could be sourness.
