- Michael M.: Too much going on. Life in flux, etc..
- Sunshine: Wow, I was soooo happy to see a new post in my rss reader. I was hopping this is already the comeback! :(...
- gandalf: Did you only get caffeine through Dr.p or did you drink coffee as well? I’m interested, since...
- neeka: nine kilos… wow… :) happy holidays to you, michael, and to all your loved ones! veronica
- m: It was a bargain. No strings attached.
Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Maribor, Slovenia.
Portoroz, Slovenia.
• AlienMelon
• Burger.si
• Heck
• Izklop
• si.blogs
• Sloblogi
• Blogorola
• Natalija Verboten
I tried, and failed, to carve a Winnie-the-Poohmpkin this year.
Today is Reformation Day in Slovenia. Despite being nominally and overwhelmingly Catholic, Slovenia still officially celebrates this quintessentially Protestant holiday. That may seem odd when you consider that all non-catholic Christians put together in Slovenia don’t even equal one percent of the population, but it makes sense when you realize that it’s primarily about this fellow, and the tremendous kick he gave to the language by printing the first Slovene-language book and also translating the New Testament into Slovene.
It’s also Halloween, which is also mildly celebrated here. There are Halloween parties, television stations play scary movies, and stores offer various knick knacks and decorations. I’m not sure how much the average Slovene gets involved in it. My guess is not too much.
Which is a bit of a shame. Halloween is a major event in the United States, and it gives commercial enterprises the chance to do what they do best: produce a dizzying variety of delicious junk.
After trick-or-treating, I used to bring home enough candy to last a lifetime. My mother (a European at heart) never quite liked the idea of me gorging on sugary treats until nausea forced me to go lie down and rest. In fact, she would always secretly destroy my stash sometime in November. I wouldn’t notice, of course, because like the Eye of Sauron, my will and energy were by that time intently focused on the impending Christmas.
Happy Halloween!
Comments
Comments for this post are closed.
A really interesting post! Of course divergence from the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, has strong roots in the Balkans what with the Dobri Kristijan a.k.a Bogomil movement that was prominant in Bosnian history, and in the history of Bulgaria. This movement is accounted by many to be the first ‘protestant’ movement.
On All Hallow’s Eve one thinks automatically to witches: If you are curious about what happend to them just 250 years ago in Maribor and around, then read this: Hexenverfolgung in der Steiermark
The funniest thing about being a Protestant in Slovenia is the amount of people asking “Really? So you’re not, like, Christian?”
Unfortunately, they don’t do Reformation Day in Baden-Württemberg. But we have a bank holiday tomorrow, which the other parts don’t… To be honest, I’m quite confused about bank holidays right now.
Ej Michael! Can you maybe publish a photo of when you were a little, maybe fat american-european prat, swallowing tons of candy?
Ah the unique American customs associated with American Halloween!
1) The marking of houses to avoid due to “healthy” treats.
2) The gangs of pirates, ninjas, Star War characters that banded together so as to funnel through multiple times at the great treat houses (How the heck were the parents going to tell us apart. This was an early indication to us that the airport security for terrorists was not going to work)
3) Arrival at home after all of the houses in the neighborhood were hit and starting the audit and seperation of the goods. All of the apples and nasty looking candy was collected into one pile. Then the trading began. The Milky Way you did not care for were exchanged for 3 Musketeers that you craved.
4) Hiding places were resurrected to put your re-distributed stash away. Somewhere where neither your mother nor your siblings would possibly come upon. However, you usually forgot about the squirrels and the chipmunks who were more than happy when they came upon your sequestered sweets in the trees in your backyard.
I always look back on Halloween as the closest we kids ever came to being pirates. Banding together for one night for one purpose, securing our loot, negotiating the split, and then scurrying off to our dens.
I have a sneaking suspicion Halloween is so popular in USA only because there’s no carnival over there.