Happy Halloween à la Suisse!

On Friday afternoon, as I picked up the mail, I noticed a small paper attached at eye-height near the door, aflutter in the breeze.  The paper briefly announced that small children from the neighborhood would be making a tour of the apartments later in the afternoon in costume to "trick-or-treat" for Halloween and requested our forebearance.  Of course, the announcement also provided the afternoon's date as "29 November" but we understood the message anyway.

In due course, the doorbell chimed and I opened the door to a group of darling children chirping "Trick-ee, Trick-ee, Halloween ..." in English.  After I had demonstrated an appropriate amount of mock fright - to their delight, I distributed my treats.  I had my camera near and managed to convince them to pose for a very brief few moments - they were already intent on the next person to frighten.  They learn fast!  The first was out of focus, with strange shadows that made it unintentionally surreal.  But the result was worthy of the spirit of Halloween!

HWMBO was enchanted by the little chant - neither of us had heard it before.  We weren't quite able to distinguish all the words since the children weren't native speakers of English.  He too was delighted with the little ones, albeit a couple days early.  It was clear that time and care had been taken with the costumes and makeup.

Even the adults escorting the Trick-or-Treaters had gotten into the act. 

I almost rushed out to replenish supplies of treats yesterday.  As it turned out, however, these have so far been our only Halloween visitors so our first stash - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and KitKats brought over from the US by HWMBO - will likely suffice.  Nonetheless we'll leave our jack-o'-lantern lit until the day is officially ended.

Happy Halloween all!