Geography of Halloween

Facts from the original

• Halloween is celebrated on October 31, the day before All Hallows.
• All Hallows, or All Saints' Day, is observed on November 1.
• The day opens the triduum of Hallowtide, ending with All Souls' Day.
• Medieval Christians believed the veil between worlds was thinnest on All Hallows' Eve.
• Christians in some regions visit graveyards to pray and place flowers and candles.
• Halloween occurs primarily in the Western world, with traditions varying by region.
• Scottish emigration to Canada before 1870 brought the Scottish version of the holiday.
• A 1911 Kingston, Ontario newspaper first referenced North American ritual begging.
• Children there went street guising between 6 and 7 p.m. for nuts and candies.
• Canadians spend more on Halloween candy than any time except Christmas.
• Until 2006 UNICEF collected small change during Canadian trick-or-treating before moving online.
• Quebec offers themed tours of the old city and historic cemeteries.
• In 2014 Arviat, Nunavut moved festivities indoors, cancelling door-to-door visits over polar bears.
• British Columbia has a tradition of setting off fireworks at Halloween.
• In the United States, Halloween did not become a holiday until the 19th century.
• Nearly two million Irish migrated after the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1849.
• Ruth Edna Kelley wrote the first book-length US history, The Book of Hallowe'en (1919).
• Kelley noted US customs are borrowed or adapted from other countries.
• Trick-or-treating is the main event for children in the US and Canada.
• Teens and adults more often attend Halloween-themed costume parties or nightclub events.
• At the turn of the 20th century Halloween became a night of vandalism.
• Around 1912 Boy Scouts and Boys Clubs encouraged safer celebrations.
• Commercialization began in the 20th century with Halloween postcards popular 1905-1915.
• Dennison Manufacturing published its first Halloween catalog in 1909.
• The Beistle Company pioneered commercially made die-cut paper decorations.
• German manufacturers made Halloween figurines exported between the World Wars.
• Halloween is now the second most popular US holiday for decorating after Christmas.
• The National Confectioners Association said in 2005 that 80% of adults planned to give candy.
• The same 2005 report said 93% of children planned to trick-or-treat.
• Popular adult costume themes rank: witch, pirate, vampire, cat, clown.
• Total Halloween spending is estimated at $8.4 billion.
• An AP survey found 66% of American parents planned to take children trick-or-treating.
• Of surveyed parents, 46% identified as Protestant and 24% as Catholic.
• Theme parks stage events like Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando.
• Disneyland and Magic Kingdom host Mickey's Halloween Party events.
• Knott's Scary Farm runs at Knott's Berry Farm.
• New York's Village Halloween Parade sends about 50,000 costumed marchers up Sixth Avenue.
• Salem, Massachusetts celebrates all October with tours, plays, and concerts.
• Lower Hudson Valley venues showcase Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
• Van Cortlandt Manor hosts the Great Jack o' Lantern Blaze with thousands of carved pumpkins.
• Madison, Wisconsin's annual celebration saw a 2002 State Street riot met with tear gas.
• Chapel Hill's 2007 street party drew about 80,000 in a town of 54,000.
• In 2008 mayor Kevin Foy made downtown commuting harder on Halloween.
• Keene, New Hampshire's 2014 Pumpkin Fest riots led to a denied permit.
• That festival moved to Laconia for 2015.
• Brazil's NGO Amigos do Saci created Saci Day as a parallel to American-influenced Halloween.
• The Saci is a mischievous evil character in Brazilian folklore.
• Saci Day falls on October 31 and is official in São Paulo state.
• Despite recognition in São Paulo and other municipalities, few Brazilians celebrate it.
• In the Dominican Republic Halloween gained popularity through Dominicans returning from the US.
• In Santiago and Santo Domingo children trick-or-treat more, but smaller towns mostly do not.
• Religious opposition partly explains its absence in smaller Dominican towns.
• Tourist areas like Sosua and Punta Cana host mostly adult Halloween venues.
• Mexico's Día de Muertos is observed in Mexico and Mexican communities abroad.
• It is a syncretism of indigenous Aztec traditions with the Christian Hallowtide.
• Flower decorations, altars, and candies are part of the holiday season.
• Día de Muertos differs from Halloween but the two became associated through cross-border ties.
• Halloween traditions like costumes and face-painting increasingly appear in the Mexican festival.
• China's Hungry Ghost Festival falls in mid-July, with river lanterns floated for the dead.
• Halloween is called Wànshèngjié, or less commonly All Saints' Eve.
• Chinese Christian churches hold religious Halloween celebrations.
• Non-religious celebrations are dominated by expatriate Americans and Canadians.
• Costume parties are popular with Chinese young adults, especially in large cities.
• Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park host annual Halloween shows.
• Mainland China is less influenced by Anglo traditions and considers Halloween foreign.
• It grows popular among children at private or international schools with foreign teachers.
• Trick-or-treating is uncommon in Hong Kong because most residents live in high-rise apartments.
• Expat-oriented buildings arrange Halloween parties and limited trick-or-treating.
• Street-level trick-or-treating occurs in gated communities like The Beverly Hills.
• It also occurs in expatriate areas like Discovery Bay and Red Hill Peninsula.
• Tsim Sha Tsui's Avenue of the Stars hosts events mimicking the celebration.
• Lan Kwai Fong has held a Halloween parade for over 20 years.
• Hong Kong International School holds Book-o-ween, where students dress as literary characters.
• Halloween reached Japan mainly through American pop culture.
• As late as 2009 it was celebrated mainly by expats in Japan.
• Elaborate young-adult costumes became popular in Amerikamura, Osaka and Shibuya, Tokyo.
• In October 2012 about 1,700 costumed people joined a Tokyo Halloween Festival.
• Celebrations became popular as costume parties and club events.
• Trick-or-treating took hold for Japanese children in some areas.
• By the mid-2010s Yakuza gave snacks and sweets to children.
• Tokyo authorities recently discouraged street drinking on Halloween.
• In the Philippines, October 31 through November 2 is for remembering dead family and friends.
• Many Filipinos travel to hometowns for festive remembrance gatherings.
• Trick-or-treating is replacing the dying tradition of Pangangaluluwâ.
• Pangangaluluwâ is a local analogue of the old English custom of souling.
• Provincial groups sing carols about souls in Purgatory in exchange for money or food.
• Alms called abúloy pay for Masses for those souls.
• Householders sometimes gave children suman rice cakes.
• Small items vanished overnight, believed taken by visiting ancestor spirits.
• Christmas decorations appear from September, so Halloween and Christmas decor can sit together.
• Starting in 2022 Saudi Arabia celebrated Halloween publicly in Riyadh under Vision 2030.
• Singapore's Chinese celebrate Zhong Yuan Jie or Yu Lan Jie in mid-July.
• Halloween there is growing more popular through Western influence.
• In 2012 Singapore had over 19 major Halloween celebration events.
• SCAPE's Museum of Horrors held its fourth scare fest in 2014.
• Universal Studios Singapore hosts Halloween Horror Nights.
• South Korea's Halloween popularity stems from English academies and corporate marketing.
• It was influenced by Halloween celebrations in Japan and America.
• It is not a public holiday but is celebrated around Seoul, especially Itaewon and Hongdae.
• Taiwan traditionally celebrates Zhong Yuan Pudu Festival, known as Ghost Month.
• During the seventh lunar month, spirits without surviving family roam the Earth.
• Some compare it to Halloween, but it has no relation and differs in meaning.
• Halloween is spreading among young Taiwanese through American pop culture.
• Events are held in Taipei areas like Xinyi Special District and Shilin District.
• The Tianmu Halloween Festival began in 2009, organized by Taipei City Office of Commerce.
• The two-day festival drew over 240,000 visitors in 2019.
• Stores in Tianmu place pumpkin lanterns outside to mark trick-or-treat destinations.
• Non-religious North American-style Halloween is growing in Australia despite not being traditional.
• Some Australians criticise the intrusion into their culture and commercialisation.
• Historian Mark Oxbrow says Halloween is not new to Australian culture.
• His research shows Halloween was first celebrated in Castlemaine, Victoria in 1858.
• Scottish miners during the Gold Rush brought Halloween traditions to Victoria.
• More Australians decorate letter boxes to signal children are welcome.
• In 2020 the first Australian Halloween-only magazine, Hallozween, launched.
• In 2021 costume, decoration, and carving pumpkin sales hit an all-time high.
• Halloween first gained traction in New Zealand in the 1990s.
• New Zealand is among the first countries to celebrate due to the International Date Line.
• It is not celebrated to North American extent but remains significant, mainly urban.
• Trick-or-treating is increasingly popular with minors despite not being a British or Kiwi event.
• Critics say New Zealand's Halloween is overly commercialised, citing The Warehouse.
• In Europe Halloween partly ousts older customs like the German Rübengeistern and Martinisingen.
• Halloween was introduced to most of France in the 1990s.
• Brittany had celebrated it for centuries as Kalan Goañv, the Night of Spirits.
• There, spirits of the dead return led by the Ankou, collector of souls.
• Germany generally did not observe Halloween before the 1990s but it is increasing.
• It is associated with US culture, called Süßes sonst gibt's Saures.
• It arrived in Berlin's Dahlem neighborhood, part of the American Cold War zone.
• German Halloween brings in 200 million euros a year across industries.
• Both children and adults celebrate, with parties, clubs, and trick-or-treating.
• Vandalism complaints rise, especially from elderly Germans unfamiliar with trick-or-treating.
• Greece does not widely celebrate Halloween and it is a working day.
• Carnival is vastly more popular among Greeks.
• A few consider Halloween the fourth most popular festival after Christmas, Easter, and Carnival.
• Bars, nightclubs, and theme parks may organize Halloween parties there.
• Halloween is not celebrated October 31 unless it falls on a weekend.
• Trick-or-treating is unpopular in Greece because Carnival has similar activities.
• Greece's small rise spread Halloween to nearby Balkans countries and Cyprus.
• On Halloween night, Irish adults and children dress as monsters and light bonfires.
• Derry in Northern Ireland hosts the island's largest organized Halloween celebration.
• Games include bobbing for apples with apples, peanuts, nuts, fruits, and coins in water.
• Players catch items using only their mouths.
• Another game involves hands-free eating of an apple hung on a string.
• Divination games are also played at Halloween.
• Colcannon is traditionally served on Halloween.
• October 31 is the busiest day for Ireland's Emergency Services.
• Bangers and fireworks are illegal in the Republic but smuggled from Northern Ireland.
• Bonfires are frequently built around Halloween.
• Trick-or-treating is popular among children, and parties are commonplace.
• The October Holiday falls on October's last Monday and may land on Halloween.
• In Italy All Saints' Day is a public holiday.
• On November 2, Tutti i Morti or All Souls' Day, families remember the dead.
• Children once awoke on All Saints or All Souls to small gifts from deceased ancestors.
• In Sardinia, Concas de Mortu are carved skull-like pumpkins with candles inside.
• Halloween gains popularity in Italy through young-adult costume parties.
• North Italy shares skull pumpkin carving and begging sweets or nuts for the dead.
• In Veneto such pumpkins were called lumère or suche dei morti.
• Since Communism's 1989 fall, Halloween has grown in popularity in Poland.
• It is celebrated particularly among younger people.
• 1990s Western tourists and expats introduced costume parties in clubs and homes.
• Door-to-door trick-or-treating is not common in Poland.
• Pumpkin carving is growing, following the North American tradition.
• Poland is the biggest pumpkin producer in the European Union.
• Romanians observe the Feast of St. Andrew, patron saint, on November 30.
• On St. Andrew's Eve ghosts are said to be about.
• Divination customs elsewhere linked to Halloween are associated with this night.
• Romanian tourism promotes trips to Vlad Tepeș and Bram Stoker's Dracula locations.
• Sighișoara, Vlad the Impaler's birthplace, hosts a successful Transylvania Halloween party.
• That party includes magician shows, ballet, and The Ritual Killing of a Living Dead.
• The biggest Transylvania Halloween party is at Bran Castle, Dracula's Castle.
• Romanian Catholic and Orthodox churches discourage Halloween, urging focus on November 1.
• Religious and nationalist groups in 2015 called to ban school costumes and decorations.
• Halloween parties remain popular in Romanian bars and nightclubs.
• In the Orthodox Church, Halloween falls the Saturday after Pentecost.
• That is four to five months before Western Halloween.
• Western Halloween began in Russia in the 1990s around the Soviet downfall.
• Costume and ghoulish parties spread in night clubs throughout Russia.
• Younger generations celebrate it, but civic society does not widely.
• The Russian government, increasingly anti-Western, tries to eliminate public Halloween.
• Spain's celebrations involve castanyes, roasted chestnuts, and panellets almond balls with pine nuts.
• They also eat moniatos, Ossos de Sant cake, and preserved fruit.
• Moscatell is drunk from porrons.
• Street vendors sell hot toasted chestnuts wrapped in newspaper.
• Confectioners organize raffles of chestnuts and preserved fruit.
• The food tradition comes from bell ringers commemorating the dead into early morning.
• Another version says the Castanyada began at the end of the 18th century from funeral meals.
• The meal symbolized communion with the souls of the departed, with prayers said.
• The festival is depicted with the castanyera, an old lady roasting chestnuts for sale.
• Recently the Castanyada became a revetlla of All Saints celebrated at home and community.
• It is the first of four main school festivals, without ritual reference to the dead.
• Galicia has Europe's second largest Halloween or Samain festivals.
• A drink called Queimada is often served there.
• In Sweden a Requiem Mass is widely attended yearly at Uppsala Cathedral.
• Swedish families visit churchyards and adorn graves with lit candles and pine wreaths.
• Children dressing in costume and collecting candy gained popularity around 2005.
• Older generations are skeptical due to tradition conflicts and commercialism.
• Sweden observes All Saints' Day on the Saturday between October 31 and November 6.
• In Switzerland Halloween first became popular in 1999 but is on the wane.
• It is most popular with young adults attending parties.
• Switzerland has festival overload and prefers traditional elements like Fasnacht.
• In past England, families stayed up late on All Souls' Eve eating soul cakes.
• At midnight there was silence, candles in every room, and wine on the table.
• Souling, giving soul cakes in Britain and Ireland, is seen as the origin of trick-or-treating.
• Souling continued in parts of England as late as the 1930s.
• Children went door to door singing and praying for the dead for cakes or money.
• Trick-or-treating and Halloween celebrations are extremely popular in England.
• Shops are decorated with witches and pumpkins, and youth attend costume parties.
• The name Halloween is first attested in the 16th century as a Scottish shortening.
• It shortened All-Hallow-Even, the night before All Hallows' Day.
• Dumfries poet John Mayne's 1780 poem noted pranks at Halloween.
• Robert Burns was influenced by Mayne and portrayed customs in his poem Halloween (1785).
• Burns said Halloween is a night when witches, devils, and mischief-makers are abroad.
• The earliest Scottish guising record is 1895, with lanterns made from scooped turnips.
• Masqueraders visited homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money.
• Guising children go door to door in costumes for food or coins.
• Now Scottish children sing a song or tell stories for sweets or money.
• Traditional games include apple dooking, retrieving apples from water by mouth.
• Another game is eating a blindfolded treacle- or jam-coated scone on a string.
• Scottish divination includes carving an apple in one strip and tossing the peel.
• The peel is believed to land in the shape of a future spouse's initial.
• In Kilmarnock Halloween is also celebrated the last Friday of October, called Killieween.
• Halloween is a popular traditional occasion on the Isle of Man, known as Hop-tu-Naa.
• Saint Helena celebrates Halloween along the American model with ghosts, devils, and witches.
• Imitation pumpkins are used because local pumpkin season is not near Halloween.
• Trick-or-treating is widespread, and party venues entertain adults.
• On Bonaire, children of the largest town gather together on Halloween day.