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The Week in Germany: Business, Technology and the Environment October 26, 2007 Unknown 20 Years Ago, Halloween is Big Business and Big Fun in Germany
Dieter Tschorn is seen as the father of Halloween in Germany. The head of the German toy industry's carnival section started popularizing the event after a poor carnival season in the early 1990's. What started out as a clever marketing exercise to tide the industry over a lean year has become a major money-spinner for the German toy sector. This year Germans will spend 150 million euros (215 million dollars) on sweets, costumes and items to give grandma a fright, and the trend is rising. "Halloween has become the third-most important annual event for us after Christmas and Easter," says Torsten Erbrath, a spokesman for the German sweets industry. While Karneval, another holiday on which costumes are de rigueur, is celebrated primarily in the Catholic southern parts of Germany, Halloween has caught on all over the country. "Halloween is even celebrated in the far north," Tschorn notes in reference to the protestant areas of Germany where people are less enthusiastic about Karneval. Nationwide Halloween-mania means growing sales for the industry. Last year, 130,000 children's costumes were sold, along with 80,000 for adults, 200,000 wigs and a quarter of a million witches' hats. The hollowed-out pumpkin is everywhere to be seen, as are the broomsticks, pointy hats and iridescent skeletons painted on black costumes. Bakers bake Halloween bread and butchers create Halloween sausage, with scary shapes revealed as the knife passes through the meat. "Trick or treating", the central tradition of Halloween as
practiced in America, has even begun to take root in Germany. In some
areas, German children ring doorbells with the greeting "Süßes
oder Saures" (literally, "something sweet or something sour").
(dpa) |
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