Halloween

Halloween is probably my favorite holiday, rated even higher than Christmas. Halloween is that one tradition that should be spent with friends. Where I lived in America, you could easily gather two whole pillow cases of candy in a single night. Everyone went all out on decorations and it is by far the greatest holiday there is. There were also public Halloween festivals, where you could get all kinds of prizes like fishes, putty, candy, toys, etc. There were also all kinds of attractions like foggy creepy hedge mazes and inflated laser tag arenas. And the best part is that is was all free.

And then there are those jackpot homes. I've found homes that were slightly secluded where the owners would let you take handfuls of candy since barely any kids showed up and they had too much candy left. There were also homes that gave large candy bars and even things like those large nerds candy boxes. Occasional you'd find a home that wasn't sufficiently prepared and they'd just straight up give you a dollar or some fruit. If you happen to find a dentist, there's a 98.3% chance that he'll give you a toothbrush.

Back in those days, me and my friends had strategic meetings planning how we could hit the most homes and how to then transport our booty.

But if you planned to participate in handing out candy on Halloween, you had to be sufficiently prepared to handle multiple "trains". These were huge groups of up to around 30 that would move as a pack. That is really scary since you can't exactly scare such a huge group and they will collect a huge amount of candy.

In Germany, Halloween isn't nearly as insanely over the top like in America, but it's definitely gained in popularity over the years. In the last ~5 years, I've always celebrated Halloween with a group of friends. Each year we'd gather at one of our homes and then do an all nighter lan party. This would usually consist of a ton of multiplayer games and then one main horror game that we'd attempt.