As an american who is used to seeing stores filled with Halloween decorations and costumes it was a shock walking around Rottedam unable to find little or any symbol of the spirit of Halloween. Where I am from, children are excited for weeks prior to halloween to dress in their costumes. It is not uncommon to choose at the beginning of the year what or who they will dress as, in some cases to give their mothers enough time to hand make the costumes. I recall my childhood halloween experiences dressing as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and other fairytale princesses and meeting up with friends to walk around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat, knocking on doors saying Trick-or-treat in hopes of receiving delicious candy; most of the time there were treats and no tricks. Another common tradition with this holiday are haunted houses, meant to scare and frighten all who enter. Those who have become to old to engage in these activities tend to watch horror movies which tend to be out in movie theatres to draw this specific audience. Whatever the age, halloween seems to include all ages but this is not the case in Rotterdam or from my understanding most of the Netherlands. It was surprising that there was not that much advertising for costume dance parties in such a diverse city. It just proved that even for a developed western society that countries and cultures create, exclude or eliminate certain traditions.