Seeing as how Halloween is so much less of a thing in Copenhagen than in the States, like I said in All The Small Things, I didn’t really expect so much of this week to be about Halloween! But I’m definitely happy that it was 🙂 Like I mentioned in that first article, I didn’t even realize how much I enjoyed Halloween back home, I’ve never felt particularly attached to it, but telling Cathrine and her family about the different decorations people use and costumes that we see kids wear really made me miss the festivities back home. I didn’t even remember the term Halloweekend until one of my friends back home used it while talking to me and it occurred to me that many Americans really do view Halloween and the time surrounding it as a time to have as much fun as possible dressed up as someone else for as long as possible.
So Cathrine and I kicked off the week by going to Halloween at Tivoli on Wednesday night! Tivoli is usually open during the summer months and then closes until October when it is decorated for Halloween and then closed again until mid November when it opens for Christmas! The gardens really did look beautiful done up for Halloween. There were pumpkin shaped lights everywhere and hay bales all over the place. Ghosts and ghouls and little booths and shops set up with Halloween costumes or Christmas gifts. The moving spiders totally freaked me and Cat out. Broomsticks had been added underneath all the swings on the ride that raises you up and spins you around. And the Ferrris Wheel had pumpkin shaped balloons atop the carriages. One of the stages was done up as a haunted house and we watched a dance show set to songs like The Thriller. It was a really good time.
Then on Thursday, my friend, Elise, and I goofed off in one of the main costume shops here and had a blast. They seemed to have everything, princes and princesses, angels and demons, everything cliché. They also had masks galore, and not just spooky ones, but the elegant ones meant for masquerade balls. And don’t forget the party hats! And all sorts of other hats. I personally liked the detective/Sherlock Holmes one. They had the golden leaf laurels of the gods of Olympus and my personal favorite and my purchase, flappers outfits! From the roaring 20s! I loved my feathered headband and costume pearls, I just wish I had the dress to go with it here (I think I have one to match at home). That was actually probably the biggest problem for DIS students on Halloween: we all have so many different pieces of costumes back home but nothing here and we couldn’t afford to go out and buy a ton of things here, adding to what we’d need to take back home, and not when we already have so much waiting for us at home. So it was nice to be able to find some cheap costume stores here that sold pieces of costumes instead of the whole things, like hats or headbands.
Friday night, my roommate threw a party with her friend so I went and it was a blast. Her friends are super inclusive and did their best to speak English all night, even when they were speaking to each other and despite my insistent assurances that it was fine if they spoke Danish. They were so nice and it was a fun way to kick of Halloweekend!
And finally, on Saturday night, the official night of Halloween, Cat and I went to her cousin’s to carve pumpkins and eat candy. I helped her cousin decorate the apartment with cotton spider webs and spider rings and she frosted a chocolate cake to look like a spider web. We made ourselves sick on candy and had such a great time with the Jack-o-lanterns! I’m so excited to roast the pumpkin seeds 🙂 I will say though, it was an uphill battle to get Cathrine to carve her own pumpkin. She really did not understand the point of carving the pumpkins when they rot in a few days anyway and she really didn’t understand my desire to carve one on Halloween. One of her friends even asked me why Americans were so attached to the pumpkin carving tradition. I really didn’t have answer, just that it was so fun and picking out a pumpkin together was a bonding experience back home and it reminded me of childhood memories of Halloween with my parents. I guess it makes sense that they don’t have the same understanding of Halloween because they didn’t grow up with it like I did; thank goodness they were open to celebrating it the American way this year though!! Happy Halloween!
thecopenhagenexperience 