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Halloween is the secular festival held on October 31 each year — All Hallows’ Eve, the night before the Christian feast of All Saints’ Day. It descends from the Gaelic festival of Samhain and is now most widely observed in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the UK.
When does Halloween fall?
Halloween is a fixed-date holiday on October 31 every year — the eve of All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day) in the Western Christian calendar. The name is a contraction of “All Hallows’ Even.” Pope Gregory III moved All Saints’ Day to November 1 in the 8th century, which fixed October 31 as its vigil; that date had already been the Celtic festival of Samhain marking the end of harvest, and the two observances merged.
Upcoming Halloween dates
| Year | Date | Day of week |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | October 31, 2026 | Saturday |
| 2027 | October 31, 2027 | Sunday |
| 2028 | October 31, 2028 | Tuesday |
| 2029 | October 31, 2029 | Wednesday |
| 2030 | October 31, 2030 | Thursday |
The day of the week matters culturally: trick-or-treating and parties draw far larger turnout when October 31 falls on a Friday or Saturday. Some US municipalities formally move trick-or-treating to the nearest weekend evening when the 31st falls midweek.
From Samhain to Halloween
The Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) was observed from sunset October 31 to sunset November 1 across Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. It marked the end of the harvest and the start of the “darker half” of the year. Surviving Irish texts (the 10th-century Tochmarc Emire) describe it as one of four cardinal annual festivals. It was thought to be a liminal time when the boundary between this world and the Sídhe (otherworld) thinned — the source of the modern association with ghosts.
In the early Middle Ages, the Christian church established a feast in honour of all saints. Pope Gregory III (731–741 AD) dedicated a chapel in St Peter’s Basilica to all saints and fixed November 1 as the universal feast. Pope Gregory IV extended it to the whole Western church around 837 AD. The eve of the feast — All Hallows’ Even — absorbed the existing Samhain customs in Gaelic-speaking regions.
Modern American Halloween emerged in the late 19th century as Irish and Scottish immigrants brought guising, divination games, jack-o’-lanterns and bonfires to the United States. Trick-or-treating in its current form is a 20th-century North American development — first documented in 1927 (Blackie, Alberta) and widespread from the 1930s.
Traditions and observance
- Costumes: derive from the medieval Christian practice of guising — disguising oneself to confuse roaming spirits on All Hallows’ Eve. Mass-produced commercial costumes appeared in the US from the 1930s (J. Halco Newton, Ben Cooper Inc.).
- Trick-or-treating: descends from souling (Christian) and guising (Scottish/Irish). The North American “treat or trick” formula stabilised in the 1930s and rebounded after WWII sugar rationing ended in 1947.
- Jack-o’-lanterns: originally hollowed turnips in Ireland and Scotland; switched to pumpkins by 19th-century immigrants to North America because pumpkins were native, abundant, and far easier to carve.
- Día de los Muertos: the Mexican Day of the Dead (November 1–2) is a distinct Mesoamerican tradition that overlaps with All Saints’ and All Souls’ days and is often confused with Halloween. It honours deceased family members with ofrendas (offerings) and is recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage.
- Bonfires: a direct survival from Samhain; still observed in parts of Ireland and Scotland on Halloween night.
Sources & references
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Halloween — origins, history, and global observance.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Samhain — the pre-Christian Gaelic festival.
- National Retail Federation — Halloween Data Center — annual US spending statistics.
FAQs
October 31 is the eve of All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day, November 1). The name “Halloween” is a contraction of “All Hallows’ Even” — the night before. Pope Gregory III (731–741 AD) moved All Saints’ Day to November 1, which fixed the date of its vigil. The choice of November 1 itself likely aligned the Christian feast with the older Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of harvest and the beginning of winter.
Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) was the pre-Christian Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the start of winter, observed from sunset October 31 to sunset November 1. Halloween inherited the date and some folk customs (bonfires, divination, guising), but the modern holiday is the Christianised All Hallows’ Eve overlaid with 19th- and 20th-century American secular traditions. Modern neopagans and Wiccans still observe Samhain as a distinct religious festival.
The earliest documented use of the phrase “trick or treat” in the US is from 1927 in Blackie, Alberta, Canada, with widespread adoption across North America in the 1930s and 1940s. The practice descends from medieval European “souling” (poor people offering prayers for the dead in exchange for soul cakes on All Souls’ Day) and Scottish/Irish “guising” (children in costume reciting verses for treats). The custom largely disappeared during the WWII sugar rationing years and rebounded after 1947.
The Irish folk tale of Stingy Jack — a man condemned to wander with a hollowed-out turnip lantern lit by a coal from hell — was the original source. Irish and Scottish immigrants to North America in the 19th century found pumpkins much easier to carve than turnips, and they were native, abundant, and ripe at the right time of year. The pumpkin jack-o’-lantern is essentially an Irish folk custom adapted to the American agricultural calendar.
Halloween is the second-largest commercial holiday in the US after Christmas. The National Retail Federation reported total US Halloween spending of $11.6 billion in 2024, with about $3.5 billion on costumes, $3.5 billion on candy, $3.8 billion on decorations, and the remainder on greeting cards. Average per-person spending was around $103. Industry estimates for 2025 were similar.
No country treats October 31 as a statutory public holiday. The following day, November 1 (All Saints’ Day), is a public holiday in many predominantly Catholic countries including France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Austria, Germany (some states), Mexico (linked with Día de los Muertos), the Philippines and most of Latin America — making Halloween effectively the eve of a long weekend in those places.