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Saturday, October 31, 2026 · 189 days away
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Halloween 2026
Event overview
Annual celebration on October 31 with origins in Celtic Samhain and Christian All Hallows' Eve. Falls on Saturday October 31, 2026. Trick-or-treating, costumes, jack-o'-lanterns, haunted houses, candy.
Halloween 2026 falls on Saturday October 31, 2026 – a Halloween Saturday, traditionally the year's biggest Halloween for adult parties and trick-or-treating. Observed widely in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and increasingly worldwide; the US National Retail Federation has tracked Halloween consumer spending in recent years at over $12 billion annually.
Halloween (a contraction of "All Hallows' Eve" – the eve of the Christian feast of All Saints, on November 1) has roots in two distinct traditions that converged in the British Isles. The Celtic pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced "sow-in"), observed on the night of October 31 to mark the end of the harvest and the boundary between summer and winter, was believed to be the night when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinnest. The dead were thought to return to visit homes; bonfires were lit; food was offered to spirits; people wore disguises (often animal skins) to confuse and ward off harmful spirits.
In the 9th century, Pope Gregory IV moved All Saints' Day (the feast commemorating all the saints of the Church, both named and unnamed) from May to November 1, partly to christianize the older Samhain observance. The night before became All Hallows' Eve – Halloween. Medieval Catholic practice added "souling" – the going door-to-door by the poor on All Hallows' Eve to receive soul cakes in exchange for prayers for the dead. Scottish and Irish "guising" (children going door to door in disguise to perform songs or jokes for treats) developed in the 18th century.
Halloween came to North America with Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 19th century, particularly after the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s. American Halloween – with its emphasis on costumes, trick-or-treating, jack-o'-lanterns, and haunted attractions – consolidated mostly between 1920 and 1950. The jack-o'-lantern tradition (originally carved into turnips in Ireland and Scotland) was adapted to the much larger and more carvable American pumpkin. Trick-or-treating as a mass children's tradition is documented in North America from the 1930s and became near-universal after WWII.
Halloween's central children's tradition is trick-or-treating – costumed children going door to door collecting candy in pumpkin-shaped buckets or pillowcases, traditionally between dusk and 8 or 9 PM. Houses signal participation by leaving porch lights on, jack-o'-lanterns lit, and sometimes elaborate front-yard decorations (gravestones, fog machines, animatronic skeletons, witch silhouettes). Around 90% of American households participate in some form, with the average household spending an estimated $50–$80 on Halloween candy and decorations.
For adults, Halloween has become a major costume-party and event night. The biggest urban Halloween parades and gatherings include the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in New York (since 1973, drawing roughly 60,000 costumed marchers and over a million spectators), Salem (Massachusetts), Sleepy Hollow, the Castro in San Francisco, and West Hollywood. Costume themes shift annually with pop culture – horror movies, Marvel and Star Wars characters, the year's viral memes, and historic figures all compete for the year's most popular costume.
Jack-o'-lanterns – pumpkins carved with faces and lit from inside with candles or LEDs – are the season's universal visual marker. Pumpkin carving is a family weekend activity in late October; pumpkin patches and pick-your-own farms in the Northeast and Midwest become major October destinations. Haunted attractions have grown into a major industry: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Orlando and Hollywood, Knott's Scary Farm in California, and standalone haunted houses across the country.
In the UK and Ireland, Halloween has historically been more subdued than in North America, but trick-or-treating, costume parties, and pumpkin carving have grown steadily since the 1990s. In Mexico, Halloween coexists with the Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos, November 1–2), which has its own elaborate traditions of ofrendas, sugar skulls, and family-cemetery vigils.
Halloween is a fixed-date observance on October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day. The date has been October 31 since the 9th century, when Pope Gregory IV fixed All Saints' Day on November 1. In 2026, October 31 falls on a Saturday – generally regarded as the optimal Halloween of any week, because both children and adults have the full evening free for trick-or-treating, parties, and adult costume events; it is also a year in which retail spending typically peaks.
Halloween 2026 sits at the front of the late-fall holiday cluster that runs through Thanksgiving 2026, Black Friday, Hanukkah 2026, Christmas 2026, and New Year 2027. It also overlaps with the Christian All Saints' Day (November 1) and the Mexican Day of the Dead (November 1–2). The family overview is at the Secular festival hub.
When is Halloween in 2026? Saturday October 31, 2026 – an optimal Halloween Saturday.
How is Halloween observed? Through trick-or-treating (children in costumes going door-to-door collecting candy), costume parties, jack-o'-lanterns, haunted attractions, and elaborate front-yard decorations.
Is Halloween a public holiday? No, in any major country – Halloween is a cultural observance, not a statutory holiday, even where widely celebrated.
What is the typical greeting? "Happy Halloween" – or, in trick-or-treating, "Trick or treat!"
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