HALLOWEEN IN MONS

They are just starting to celebrate Halloween in Belgium. They don't do much in the way of trick or treating, but you see costumes, decorations, etc. in and on the stores. Some houses are also decorated. You don't see much at the apartments, but out in the country where there are more houses we saw this cute one.

It may be the American influence with the military base here.

S.H.A.P.E. had a large Halloween celebration - kind of like our Trunk or Treat. They kids go around in a large horseshoe area and trick or treat and end up at at a gymnasium that has games, food, party stuff, etc. The Americans in the Branch all went there.

We received this cute fall decoration from Elly and Toon for our anniversary. The Elders notice it and said you could always tell where the Americans lived by the Fall decorations, because none of the Belgians ever decorated for Fall or Halloween, and, of course, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving.

They, however, have already started decorating for Christmas. We will see what that brings.

We had a hard time finding a pumpkin, but did find one at a garden shop. Mostly, at this time of year they sell chrysanthemums. They are for November 1, which is Toussaint (All Saints Day), where they decorate the graves of their loved ones. We were told never to give chrysanthemums to anyone for a present as these flowers are considered for dead people.

The malls, gas stations, grocery stores, etc., all have large displays of chrysanthemums. This is one in the middle aisle of the mall. They have them in huge plants with hundreds of blooms on each plant (notice the shoe for size comparison) and have some that have a few single flowers that are about the size of a soccer ball. They really are beautiful.

We went across the border to France to do some banking and saw this large cemetery off from the freeway. JoAnn almost drove off the road it was so spectacular. We took the next off ramp and found the cemetery so we could take these pictures.

None of these come close to the breathtaking color and abundance of looking down at the entire cemetery from the freeway.

Many of the individual graves were decorated so artistically just by themselves that we took a picture of them also.