The Dutch don’t really seem to go in for Halloween the same way as other countries. In my country, every single shop is decked out in cobwebs and pumpkins from the end of September, here only a few shops seem to join in the festivities. There is a distinct lack of zombies, cats and Disney princesses. (All of the previous, of course, also come in “sexy” versions. I recently heard of a girl who dressed up as a “sexy potato”.)

Halloween is technically for kids but, in recent years, it has definitely been overtaken by adults, it speaks to one of our deepest desires, something that humankind has felt through the ages – to dress up like a weirdo and drink alcohol. I did see a few skeletons, witches and one or two parties in bars and clubs, but nothing to the extent of back home.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that the kids don’t go out ’trick or treating’. In Scotland we go ‘guising’, where we have to sing a song or tell a joke before we even get a whiff of a sweetie. As a child, you look forward to it all year, dreaming of a haul of sweets. I felt pretty bad for the Dutch kids missing out until I discovered, through the wonders of Google that the Dutch actually do this on the 11th of November instead of the 31st of October. And that it’s not Halloween being celebrated but Sint-Maarten day. It remains to be seen whether or not Google was lying to me.

But if Google is telling the truth, I actually love that the Netherlands has kept a hold of this tradition and not fallen to the globalised standard of Halloween (I would say Americanised version but, apparently, us Scots invited it and took it over to the New World, and we in turn probably stole the idea from someone else). And I guess you guys do have plenty of other opportunities to wear daft outfits and drink…

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