Halloween!!!

            A few weeks ago I learned that, sadly, Halloween was a very American Holiday. I was informed that people in Austria don’t take their kids door to door to mooch all of their neighbors’ candy in glorious and exciting costumes. Personally I think that Halloween is one of the best holidays ever and I would be very sad if I never got to celebrate it. Luckily, the wonderful people in the group I am with have similar feelings. So, a few parties were organized.

            One of the parties would be at Kiersten and Lindsay’s house so of course they needed some decorations. So, on Saturday night I went over to their house to carve a pumpkin that their host Frau had purchased. Since this activity had never been enjoyed in that household, our utensil selection was very slim. With our giant knives, however, I think we managed to do a pretty good job. There were some parts that were already rotting and had to be removed, but other than that I think our work was quite impressive.

Kiersten and her pumpkin π (3.14), Lindsay and her classic face, me and my spooky tree

My Pumpkin!

Monday is when the real fun began! Some of our people even wore their costumes to school! Two girls bought some fanny packs at a second hand store and used stuff from their house to dress up as tourists! Kiersten also used stuff she already had to create an awesome grandma costume. We walked around the city for one of our classes and I think it’s no surprise that we got some weird looks.

After school I went to the LDS center with some of the girls where they were having a Halloween party of their own! I put on my costume (which consisted of footie pajamas, pigtails and a teddy bear) just before we went there. They had pumpkin carving too but they actually used the pumpkin guts to make pumpkin soup! (I didn’t actually try some until I went to one of the Austrian’s apartments the next day but it was really good!) So after socializing with our Austrian friends a bit and eating some chili for dinner we made our way over to Kiersten and Lindsay’s party.

It was quite the commute but once we arrived we found the party in full swing. There was pizza, pie, games and dancing! There was even an unfortunate incident that resulted in a broken chair… luckily the Frau was very understanding and helped resolve the situation.

A couple costumes:

I am so glad that we were able to bring this fun holiday to Vienna! I did see some locals dressed up but they all had really freaky costumes so I think they haven’t gotten past the creep aspect of Halloween yet. I hope one day their holiday evolves to what ours is in America because I love it so much! I would like to express much gratitude to those who made Halloween in Vienna possible!