Happy Halloween!

I remember when HWMBO and I first arrived in Switzerland in 1994.  We could find no one who celebrated Halloween.  At my workplace, when I proposed organizing a Halloween party, no one even knew what I meant.  Nonetheless, our Halloween parties became popular events.  People seemed to enjoy dressing up in costumes just to enjoy themselves and some of the costumes were very creative.

Towards the late 90s, we noticed that little by little, the idea of Halloween was beginning to catch on over here, first in France, of course, and gradually in Geneva.  Costumes began appearing in the stores.  Still, almost no one ever came to our house for treat-or-treat candy.  Even my first year in this new apartment, when I had a few candies that I had brought with me from the US, only two children, my neighbors from the apartment downstairs, stopped by - and they came a day early, so that I had to rush around to find where I had stashed the goodies.  The second year, no one came at all and 2009 was the same.  Last year, however, I had a group of little ones accompanied by their mothers - also a day early.

But this year, I forgot to be ready yesterday.  Fortunately, no one came.  This afternoon, I got out my candy stash, brought a couple decorations up from the downstairs storage area and then went about my business.  Lo and behold, around 4:30 pm (16:30 hereabouts), the doorbell rang and there were some trick-or-treaters, a bit older than last year's group, but well-costumed.

And then they just kept coming ...

and coming ...

in waves.  Moms were present to ensure that no little one got too carried away with digging into the candy.

But it is too bad that the moms were so vigilant.  No one has come since and I still have candy left!

My students will get the remainder of the candy later this week, to help sweeten the results of their mid-term exams, I hope!  In the meantime, Happy Halloween!