Cultural - Halloween in Poland

Halloween - it’s a curious holiday.

No matter what we think personally about it - the fact of the matter is, it has gotten bigger and bigger in the USA in the last few years. I can’t believe how many props and decorations were being sold with it as the theme - and starting very early! Certainly in August, they begin stocking these things at the big box stores.

When we first came to Poland in 1994, I didn’t see anything relating to Halloween. Of course, I barely saw decorations for Christmas, either! At that time, there just wasn’t that much around - of that kind of thing.

Since then, things have changed exponentially.

Now you can see some Halloween decorations - especially carved pumpkins.

When I grew my pumpkins (not this year), I had a lot of them and I really wanted to give many of them away - but not necessarily for carving. I grew edible ones - and hoped that people would eat them.

However, I saw that many wanted them for carving. They do sell pumpkins in the stores, but compared to what you can buy at the right place and time in the USA, they are expensive because you pay by the kilogram - not as individual pumpkins.

A few children go around and gather candy - but we’ve only had it once or twice. I had some kids come to my house once when our children were still home and I wasn’t ready. Then, the next years I had candy at home, but no one came. Now we just shut the gate early so no one can even get close. Call me Scrooge if you want.

But last week I was at Lidl and saw this display. Let me share it with you. I bought a bag of the blue corn tortillas and we had some with our chili. I’m not sure why blue corn tortillas are “Halloween” - but that’s how they marketed them.

I will add that in Poland, in late January they have something they call Carnival - and at that time children dress up in costumes. I think that children love costumes, and ANY excuse to wear a costume is fun for them. It seems redundant to me, but I guess it does get more use out of the costumes - and of course, sells more. Let’s face it - much of this is driven by money.

Here are a couple of close ups of some of the things they were selling about 10 days ago. Today (the 28th) we went back to Lidl, and I couldn’t find any sign of any of these items. Notice the English on all of these things. I’m curious if they sold the same things in the Lidl stores in the states.

One thing that totally inhibits the whole trick or treating aspect of it all here in Poland is the very way the houses are built. Mostly in the states, at least in many neighborhoods, the front door is accessible to anyone - you can get to it by walking up the steps and ringing the doorbell. If part of the yard is fenced, it is the backyard only. Here, that is not the case.

We put fences around the WHOLE yard - with a ringing doorbell on the fence. This immediately makes it much harder for anyone to get close to your house.

Then, a good percentage of the population lives in apartment buildings. They usually have locked entrances and you have to have someone unlock the main door to get in - or you follow someone who lives there in through an opened door. This makes it difficult to get in in order to get to people’s doorways to knock and do the “trick or treat” thing.

Since none of our children are home - I don’t know what is going on locally this year. I’ve searched for some activities going on - but so far haven’t seen anything. As I said, nothing is as big of a deal here with regards to Halloween as it is in the states.

This quilt shown here is Cornered.

So this year, once again, we will lock the front gate and pull down the blinds. This year I’m not prepared for visiting children. After being ready for 2 or 3 years in a row with candy bars, and no one showing up, I decided to quit even thinking about it and go on with my life.

And that’s it about this holiday in Poland! We actually have a ‘magical’ holiday coming up in about a month - at which time I’ll tell you more.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this! Thanks for coming along with me on my quilting/sewing journey!

Becky Petersen2 Comments