Geography of Halloween

The list

1. 01

   Canada

   Scottish roots; 1911 guising report; polar bears cancelled Arviat 2014

2. 02

   United States

   19th-century holiday; trick-or-treating hub; $8.4 billion spending

3. 03

   Brazil

   Saci Day on Oct 31 counters American Halloween

4. 04

   Dominican Republic

   Grew via US migration; urban trick-or-treating, absent in small towns

5. 05

   Mexico (Día de Muertos)

   Aztec and Christian syncretism; altars, flowers, candies

6. 06

   China

   Hungry Ghost Festival mid-July; Halloween seen as foreign

7. 07

   Hong Kong

   High-rises limit trick-or-treating; Lan Kwai Fong parade 20+ years

8. 08

   Japan

   American pop culture; elaborate adult costumes; Yakuza gave candy

9. 09

   Philippines

   Oct 31-Nov 2 remembers dead; Pangangaluluwâ giving way to trick-or-treating

10. 10

    Saudi Arabia 2022

    Public Riyadh Halloween celebration began under Vision 2030

11. 11

    Singapore

    Zhong Yuan Jie mid-July; Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights

12. 12

    South Korea

    English academies and marketing; Itaewon and Hongdae celebrations

13. 13

    Taiwan

    Ghost Month; Tianmu Halloween Festival since 2009, 240,000 visitors

14. 14

    Australia 1858

    First celebrated Castlemaine 1858 by Scottish miners; Hallozween magazine 2020

15. 15

    New Zealand

    Gained traction in 1990s; among first to celebrate globally

16. 16

    France

    Introduced 1990s; Brittany's Kalan Goañv led by Ankou

17. 17

    Germany

    Post-1990s rise; 200 million euros annually; vandalism complaints

18. 18

    Greece

    Working day, little interest; Carnival far more popular

19. 19

    Ireland

    Derry's carnival and fireworks; apple bobbing; colcannon served

20. 20

    Italy

    All Saints public holiday; Sardinian skull pumpkins; All Souls gifts

21. 21

    Poland

    Popular since 1989; biggest EU pumpkin producer; costume parties in clubs

22. 22

    Romania

    St. Andrew's Eve divination; Dracula tourism; Bran Castle parties

23. 23

    Russia

    1990s nightclub parties; government tries to eliminate it

24. 24

    Spain

    Castanyada foods: chestnuts, panellets, moniatos, moscatell

25. 25

    Sweden

    Uppsala Requiem Mass; grave candles and pine wreaths; skepticism from elders

26. 26

    Switzerland 1999

    Popular from 1999, now waning; mostly young adult parties

27. 27

    England

    Soul cakes and souling; trick-or-treating extremely popular

28. 28

    Scotland 1785

    'Halloween' first attested 16th century; Burns poem 1785; guising, dooking

29. 29

    Isle of Man

    Halloween known as Hop-tu-Naa

30. 30

    Saint Helena

    American-style, imitation pumpkins, widespread trick-or-treating

Facts from the original

• Halloween is celebrated on October 31, the day before the feast of All Hallows, also called Hallowmas or All Saints' Day.
• Celebrations occur primarily in the Western world, with traditions varying significantly between geographic areas.
• All Hallows is observed November 1 and begins the triduum of Hallowtide, culminating with All Souls' Day.
• Medieval Christians held a folk belief that All Hallows' Eve was when the veil between the material world and the afterlife was most transparent.
• Scottish emigration brought the Scottish version of the holiday to Canada before 1870 and to the United States afterward.
• The earliest known reference to ritual begging on Halloween in English-speaking North America is a 1911 Kingston, Ontario newspaper report of children going street guising between 6 and 7 p.m.
• Canadians spend more on candy at Halloween than at any time apart from Christmas.
• Until 2006, when UNICEF moved online, collecting small change was part of Canadian trick-or-treating.
• Quebec offers themed tours of parts of the old city and historic cemeteries.
• In 2014 Arviat, Nunavut moved festivities to the community hall and cancelled door-to-door trick-or-treating due to polar bear risk.
• In British Columbia it is a tradition to set off fireworks at Halloween.
• In the United States Halloween did not become a holiday until the 19th century.
• The migration of nearly two million Irish after the Great Irish Famine (1845-1849) brought the holiday to the United States.
• Ruth Edna Kelley wrote the first book-length US history of the holiday, The Book of Hallowe'en (1919).
• Trick-or-treating has children in costumes going door-to-door yelling 'Trick or treat!' for candy.
• At the turn of the 20th century Halloween had become a night of vandalism, property destruction, and cruelty.
• Around 1912 the Boy Scouts, Boys Clubs, and neighborhood groups encouraged safe celebrations to end destruction.
• Commercialization began in the 20th century, perhaps with Halloween postcards popular between 1905 and 1915.
• Dennison Manufacturing published its first Halloween catalog in 1909; Dennison and Beistle pioneered commercial decorations, especially die-cut paper.
• German manufacturers specialized in Halloween figurines exported to the US between the two World Wars.
• Halloween is the second most popular US holiday for decorating, after Christmas.
• The National Confectioners Association reported in 2005 that 80% of American adults planned to give candy and 93% of children planned to trick-or-treat.
• The National Retail Federation lists the most popular adult costume themes as witch, pirate, vampire, cat, and clown.
• Total US Halloween spending is estimated at $8.4 billion.
• Theme parks stage annual events including Halloween Horror Nights, Mickey's Halloween Party, and Knott's Scary Farm.
• New York's Village Halloween Parade draws roughly 50,000 costumed marchers up Sixth Avenue.
• Salem, Massachusetts celebrates Halloween all October with tours, plays, and concerts.
• Van Cortlandt Manor stages the Great Jack o' Lantern Blaze with thousands of lighted carved pumpkins.
• In 2002 a riot in Madison, Wisconsin's State Street area required mounted police and tear gas.
• Chapel Hill's 2007 downtown street party drew about 80,000 people in a town of 54,000.
• In 2014 college students rioted at Keene, New Hampshire's Pumpkin Fest; the event moved to Laconia for 2015.
• Brazil's NGO Amigos do Saci created Saci Day on October 31, an official holiday in São Paulo state.
• The Saci is a mischievous evil character in Brazilian folklore; few Brazilians celebrate Saci Day.
• In the Dominican Republic Halloween gained popularity through Dominicans returning from the United States.
• In Dominican cities like Santiago and Santo Domingo trick-or-treating is more common; in smaller towns it is almost absent.
• Day of the Dead arose from syncretism of indigenous Aztec traditions and the Christian Hallowtide of Spanish colonizers.
• Day of the Dead involves flower decorations, altars, and candies, and is distinct from Halloween in origins.
• Chinese celebrate the Hungry Ghost Festival in mid-July by floating river lanterns.
• In Chinese, Halloween is often called Wànshèngjié (All Saints' Festival).
• Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park host annual Halloween shows.
• Mainland China is less influenced by Anglo traditions and generally considers Halloween foreign.
• Hong Kong trick-or-treating is uncommon because most residents live in high-rise apartment blocks.
• Lan Kwai Fong has held a Halloween celebration and parade for over 20 years.
• Halloween reached Japan mainly through American pop culture and by 2009 was celebrated only by expats.
• In October 2012 about 1700 costumed people took part in the Halloween Festival in Tokyo and Osaka.
• By the mid-2010s Yakuza were giving snacks and sweets to children in Japan.
• In the Philippines October 31 through November 2 is a time for remembering dead family and friends.
• Pangangaluluwâ, a Filipino analogue of souling, is dying as trick-or-treating replaces it.
• Starting 2022, Saudi Arabia began public Halloween celebrations in Riyadh under Vision 2030.
• Singapore Chinese celebrate Zhong Yuan Jie (Hungry Ghosts Festival) around mid-July.
• In 2012 Singapore had over 19 major Halloween celebration events.
• Universal Studios Singapore hosts Halloween Horror Nights.
• South Korean Halloween popularity stems from English academies, corporate marketing, and Japanese and American influence.
• In South Korea Halloween is celebrated around Seoul, especially Itaewon and Hongdae.
• Taiwanese traditionally celebrate Zhong Yuan Pudu Festival, known as Ghost Month, during the seventh lunar month.
• The Tianmu Halloween Festival began in 2009, organized by the Taipei City Office of Commerce.
• The two-day Tianmu festival attracted more than 240,000 visitors in 2019.
• In Tianmu, stores place pumpkin lanterns outside to mark trick-or-treat destinations.
• Non-religious Halloween modelled on North America is growing in Australia despite not being traditionally part of the culture.
• Historian Mark Oxbrow's research shows Halloween was first celebrated in Australia in Castlemaine, Victoria, in 1858.
• Halloween traditions were brought to Australia by Scottish miners who settled in Victoria during the Gold Rush.
• In 2020 Australia's first Halloween-only magazine, Hallozween, launched.
• Halloween first gained traction in New Zealand in the 1990s.
• New Zealand is among the first countries to celebrate Halloween due to its proximity to the International Date Line.
• Halloween has become more popular in Europe, partly ousting older customs like Rübengeistern and Martinisingen.
• Halloween was introduced to most of France in the 1990s.
• In Brittany Halloween has been celebrated for centuries as Kalan Goañv (Night of Spirits), led by the Ankou.
• Halloween was not generally observed in Germany before the 1990s.
• Today Halloween in Germany brings in 200 million euros a year.
• In Greece Halloween is a working day with little public interest since the early 2000s.
• In Ireland, Derry hosts the largest organized Halloween celebration on the island, with a street carnival and fireworks.
• Irish Halloween games include bobbing for apples, with apples, nuts, fruits, and small coins in a basin of water.
• Colcannon is traditionally served on Halloween in Ireland.
• October 31 is the busiest day of the year for Irish Emergency Services.
• Bangers and fireworks are illegal in the Republic of Ireland but smuggled in from Northern Ireland.
• In Italy All Saints' Day is a public holiday; November 2 is Tutti i Morti (All Souls' Day).
• Sardinia displays Concas de Mortu, carved pumpkins shaped like skulls with candles inside.
• Veneto called carved pumpkins lumère (lanterns) or suche dei morti (deads' pumpkins).
• Since the fall of Communism in 1989, Halloween has grown more popular in Poland, especially among younger people.
• Poland is the biggest pumpkin producer in the European Union.
• Romanians observe the Feast of St. Andrew on November 30; ghosts are said to be about on St. Andrew's Eve.
• A major Transylvania Halloween party takes place in Sighișoara, Vlad the Impaler's birthplace, with magician and ballet shows.
• The biggest Transylvania Halloween party is at Bran Castle, aka Dracula's Castle.
• Romanian Catholic and Orthodox Churches discourage Halloween, urging focus on the Day of the Dead on November 1.
• In the Orthodox Church, Halloween falls on the Saturday after Pentecost, four to five months before western Halloween.
• Western Halloween celebration in Russia began in the 1990s with costume and ghoulish parties in nightclubs.
• The Russian government has tried to eliminate Halloween from public celebration.
• Spanish celebrations involve castanyes (roasted chestnuts), panellets, moniatos, Ossos de Sant cake, and preserved fruit.
• Moscatell (Muscat) is drunk from porrons in Spain.
• The Spanish food tradition comes from bell ringers who rang bells for the dead into the early morning, with helpers eating for sustenance.
• The festival is depicted with the castanyera, an old lady in peasant clothing roasting chestnuts for street sale.
• Galicia is known for the second largest Halloween or Samain festivals in Europe, serving Queimada.
• At Uppsala Cathedral a Requiem Mass is widely attended every All Hallow's Eve.
• Swedish families visit churchyards during Allhallowtide and adorn graves with lit candles and pine wreaths.
• Swedish children began dressing in costume and collecting candy around 2005.
• In Switzerland Halloween became popular in 1999 but is now on the wane, most popular with young adults.
• In England, soul cakes were eaten on All Souls' Eve, with candles in every room to guide souls.
• Souling, which originated in Great Britain and Ireland, continued in parts of England as late as the 1930s.
• The name Halloween is first attested in the 16th century as a Scottish shortening of All-Hallow-Even.
• Robert Burns portrayed Halloween customs in his 1785 poem Halloween, influenced by John Mayne's 1780 poem.
• Among the earliest records of Scottish guising is an 1895 account of masqueraders with turnip lanterns rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.
• Traditional Scottish games include apple dooking and eating a treacle-coated scone hung on a string while blindfolded.
• A Scottish divination custom carves an apple in one strip and tosses the peel over the shoulder to spell a future spouse's initial.
• In Kilmarnock, Halloween is also celebrated on the last Friday of the month, called Killieween.
• On the Isle of Man, Halloween is known as Hop-tu-Naa.
• In Saint Helena Halloween is celebrated along the American model using imitation pumpkins, because pumpkin season is not near Halloween there.