Halloween Around the World: Who Celebrates It and How
How Halloween is celebrated in 23 countries and regions, grouped by continent: local names, 2026 and 2027 dates, the best evidence of who celebrates (or a plain 'no national survey'), the local festival of the dead and one custom each, from Undas and Día de Muertos to the Hungry Ghost Festival.
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- • Halloween around the world splits three ways: a main event in the US, Canada, Ireland and the UK; the eve of All Saints' and All Souls' Days in Catholic Europe and Latin America; and a side event in Asia, where lunar festivals of the dead come weeks earlier.
- • Hard numbers are rare: the US Census counts 73.1 million potential trick-or-treaters, while YouGov found 51% of adults in Great Britain don't celebrate; most of the 23 countries here have no national survey.
- • The Hungry Ghost Festival falls on 27 August 2026 and 16 August 2027, and Pitru Paksha runs 26 September–10 October 2026 and 15–29 September 2027, so Asia's nights for spirits usually come before 31 October.
- • Late October is also an anniversary in South Korea: the 29 October 2022 Itaewon crush killed 158 people by a 2023 peer-reviewed count, later 159.
- • SubhSandesh miss-you senders name 47 distinct city pairs, including Mumbai-London; 48.3% of page views are on phones, so a greeting to a friend abroad should be phone-first.
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Halloween Around the World: Who Celebrates It and How
Halloween around the world splits three ways. In the US, Canada, Ireland and the UK, 31 October is the main event; across Catholic Europe and Latin America it is the night before the 1–2 November feasts for saints and souls; and in much of Asia the big nights for the dead fall on lunar dates weeks earlier. Below: 23 countries and regions with names, dates, reach and customs.
Where no national survey exists, the entry says so. These greetings cross borders too: on SubhSandesh's miss-you template, senders name 47 distinct city pairs, including Mumbai-London and Berlin-London, and 48.3% of SubhSandesh views arrive via phones.
Who celebrates Halloween in the world?
Halloween is 31 October, the vigil before the church's holy day for all saints. Outside its Irish, Scottish and North American heartland it is mostly a recent import, carried by trade and television rather than churches.
Anthropologist Stanley Brandes traced that route in a 2000 study of Mexico in Alteridades, linking shop-bought costumes and plastic pumpkins to NAFTA (ratified 1993), returning migrants and American television. He also recorded the pushback: a Tepoztlán mural reading "No al Halloween. Conserva tus tradiciones" ("No to Halloween. Keep your traditions"), and an Oaxaca altar contest that disqualified foreign elements.
How Halloween is celebrated in 23 countries, region by region
Each entry gives five fields: name, date, reach, related festival and custom. "No national survey" means we found no representative poll, not that nobody takes part.
The Americas: 4 countries
- United States. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October (Saturday 2026, Sunday 2027). Reach: the US Census Bureau's 2025 Halloween fact sheet counts 73.1 million children under 18 as potential trick-or-treaters. Related: none. Custom: door-to-door trick-or-treating.
- Canada. Name: Halloween; l'Halloween in Quebec. Date: 31 October. Reach: a Narrative Research online poll of 1,230 adults (October 2025) found half hand out treats, but only 34% in Quebec. Related: none. Custom: a Kingston, Ontario newspaper described children "guising" in 1911.
- Mexico. Name: Halloween, then Día de Muertos. Date: 1–2 November, not a federal rest day. Reach: no national survey; Brandes saw children begging among graves for their "jalouín". Related: Día de Muertos, a remembrance of family dead, not a Mexican Halloween. Custom: home altars (ofrendas) with flowers, food and photographs.
- Brazil. Name: Dia das Bruxas ("Witches' Day"). Date: 31 October; Dia de Finados, 2 November, is a national holiday. Reach: no national survey. Related: Dia do Saci, fixed on 31 October by São Paulo state Law 11,669 of 13 January 2004. Custom: honouring the Saci, a one-legged folklore trickster.
Europe: 8 countries
- Ireland. Name: Oíche Shamhna. Date: 31 October; the bank holiday is 26 October 2026 and 25 October 2027. Reach: no national survey verified here. Related: Samhain. Custom: barmbrack, a fruit loaf with a ring baked inside.
- United Kingdom. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October; Bonfire Night, 5 November. Reach: in YouGov's September 2025 poll of 2,069 adults, 51% in Great Britain don't celebrate. Related: Bonfire Night. Custom: Scottish guising, a joke or song before sweets.
- Germany. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October is also Reformation Day, a holiday in 9 of 16 states; All Saints is a holiday in 5. Reach: no national survey; it spread from the 1990s. Related: Allerheiligen. Custom: the rhyme "Süßes, sonst gibt's Saures" ("sweets, or it turns sour").
- France. Name: Halloween. Date: La Toussaint, 1 November, is a public holiday. Reach: no national survey; a late-1990s retail boom cooled. Related: Toussaint. Custom: Brittany's Kalan Goañv, an older night of returning dead.
- Italy. Name: Halloween. Date: Ognissanti, 1 November, is a public holiday. Reach: no national survey. Related: Ognissanti and 2 November. Custom: Sardinia's concas de mortu, pumpkins carved as skulls.
- Spain. Name: Halloween. Date: Todos los Santos, 1 November, is a national holiday. Reach: no national survey. Related: Todos los Santos. Custom: Catalonia's Castanyada: roasted chestnuts and panellets, almond sweets rolled in pine nuts.
- Poland. Name: Halloween. Date: 1 November is a public holiday; Zaduszki follows on 2 November. Reach: no national survey; growing among young people since 1989, mostly as parties. Related: Zaduszki. Custom: cemeteries lit with candles.
- Sweden. Name: Halloween. Date: Alla helgons dag is the Saturday between 31 October and 6 November: 31 October 2026, 6 November 2027. Reach: no national survey; children's costumes caught on around 2005. Related: Alla helgons dag. Custom: candles and pine wreaths on graves.
Asia: 7 countries and territories
- Philippines. Name: Undas. Date: Proclamation No. 1006 makes All Saints' Day a special (non-working) day and adds All Souls' Day, Monday 2 November, for 2026; No. 1427 lists Monday 1 November 2027, and its preamble adds Tuesday 2 November. Reach: no national survey; families travel home to visit graves. Related: Undas. Custom: pangangaluluwa, singing house to house for the souls.
- China (mainland). Name: Wànshèngjié (万圣节, "All Saints' Festival"). Date: 31 October, no holiday. Reach: no national survey; city costume parties, widely seen as foreign. Related: the Hungry Ghost Festival. Custom: floating river lanterns for the dead.
- Hong Kong. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October, no holiday. Reach: no survey; high-rise living makes door-to-door rare. Related: Yu Lan, the Hungry Ghost Festival. Custom: costume crowds in Lan Kwai Fong.
- Japan. Name: Harowīn. Date: 31 October, no holiday. Reach: no national survey; an adult costume night without trick-or-treating. Related: Obon, mid-August. Custom: street costume crowds.
- South Korea. Name: Haelleowin (핼러윈). Date: 31 October, no holiday. Reach: no national survey; spread through English academies and marketing. Related: Chuseok (24–26 September 2026; 14–16 September 2027). Custom: since 2022, late October is also a memorial.
- India. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October, no holiday. Reach: no survey; club and house parties in big cities. Related: Pitru Paksha, 26 September–10 October 2026 and 15–29 September 2027 (New Delhi, Drik Panchang). Custom: food offerings to ancestors.
- Nepal. Name: none in common use. Date: not observed nationally. Reach: no data. Related: Gai Jatra, August or September, for relatives who died that year. Custom: children dressed as cows join the procession.
Oceania: 2 countries
- Australia. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October, in spring. Reach: retail estimates only; no state makes it a holiday. Related: none. Custom: daylight trick-or-treating.
- New Zealand. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October; at UTC+13 it is among the first countries to reach it. Reach: no national survey; it grew from the 1990s. Related: none. Custom: children's trick-or-treating.
Africa and the Middle East: limited data
- Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October. Reach: no survey, statute or dated report found. Related and custom: not verified, so left blank.
- Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Name: Halloween. Date: 31 October. Reach: no survey. Related: none. Custom: NDTV reported on 2 November 2022 a Thursday-to-Sunday "scary weekend" in Riyadh, allowed under Vision 2030 after years of prohibition. Elsewhere in the region: no reliable data.
Halloween around the world at a glance: 5 regions compared
This table condenses the 23 entries into five regions.
| Region | Celebrated on 31 October? | Local festival of the dead | Signature custom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Americas | US, Canada: yes; Mexico, Brazil: growing, no survey | Día de Muertos 1–2 Nov; Finados 2 Nov | Trick-or-treating; ofrendas |
| Europe | Ireland, UK: yes, though 51% of GB adults abstain | All Saints, 1 Nov: national holiday in 5 of 8 | Candles on graves |
| Asia | City parties; no national survey anywhere | Hungry Ghost 27 Aug 2026; Pitru Paksha from 26 Sep 2026; Undas | Lanterns, food offerings |
| Oceania | Yes, smaller, in spring | None | Daylight trick-or-treating |
| Africa and Middle East | Limited; Riyadh public events since 2021 | Not verified | Riyadh "scary weekend" |
Wherever an older remembrance exists, Halloween plays second fiddle.
Why some festivals of the dead fall weeks before 31 October
Halloween keeps a fixed Gregorian date, but most Asian festivals of the dead follow the moon. The Hungry Ghost Festival is the 15th night of the seventh Chinese lunar month: Thursday 27 August 2026 and Monday 16 August 2027.
Pitru Paksha ends on Sarva Pitru Amavasya, 10 October 2026 and 29 September 2027, and Chuseok in 2027 ends about six weeks before Halloween. So "Halloween in China" or "in India" usually means an imported party, held after the local night of spirits.
Where Halloween sits beside grief or restriction
Late on 29 October 2022, Halloween crowds packed a sloping Itaewon alley in Seoul, 40 metres long and 4 metres wide. A 2023 F1000Research review by Kyoo-Man Ha records 158 deaths, 26 of them foreign nationals, and 196 injured; later official counts reached 159.
For a Korean friend, late October is an anniversary first. In the Philippines and Mexico, 1–2 November means cemetery visits, so keep jokes to 31 October. In Saudi Arabia, NDTV recalls a 2018 police raid on a Halloween party; check local rules before posting publicly.
Greeting a friend abroad on 31 October: time zones first
A link sent from Delhi at 7 pm on Halloween reaches New York at 9:30 am, London at 1:30 pm and Auckland at 2:30 am the next day; the clocks give the same result for 2026 and 2027. For Auckland, send by 10:30 am Delhi time to land at 6 pm.
For one far-off friend, pick bestie on SubhSandesh's Halloween greeting page and the final question reworks itself for friendship. Load six pictures at most, plus the word that glows inside the carved pumpkin; they tour a pocket-sized haunted house, read your note by torch in the attic, and save a portrait Boo License, 1080 by 1920 pixels.
Opening it takes only a browser, and you hear by email once they answer. Over every SubhSandesh page, the mean is 11.1 views apiece, and 38.5% of makers set a password. If that person overseas is a partner, the I-miss-you page with a reunion countdown fits better.
Grief, language and crowds: 3 reasons to hold the card
Skip it for anyone mourning: a friend at an Undas grave, building an ofrenda, or in Korea near 29 October. Write plain words; SubhSandesh has no remembrance template, and the full template list won't change that.
Buttons and prompts appear only in English, so a friend who reads just Korean or Portuguese will see English controls. Each card has one recipient; it cannot gather party guests.
Sources
- Brandes, Alteridades, July–December 2000
- US Census Bureau, CB25-FF.08, 2025
- São Paulo Law 11,669, 13 January 2004
- YouGov, 6 October 2025
- NDTV, 2 November 2022 (archived)
- Ha, F1000Research, 22 November 2023
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Written by
Suyash Agrahari
Founder
Suyash Agrahari is a Software Engineer at HireQuotient and the founder of SubhSandesh and DrawFlow (drawflow.in). He builds AI agents and full-stack products with Next.js, Node.js, and the OpenAI and LangChain ecosystems, having shipped autonomous multi-agent systems, AI copilots, and large-scale outreach platforms — and scaled side projects from a few hundred to millions of users. He writes about AI engineering, web development, and building products that grow through SEO and organic reach.
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