What is Halloween like in Europe?
Is it celebrated allot
37 comments
There might be some pumpkin here or there. Not much more than that in my experience. Oh and some people go out to party with costumes. Otherwise [All Saints day](https://sweden.se/culture/celebrations/all-saints-day-in-sweden), might be more “celebrated”.
In Ireland we claim to have invented it, many Halloween traditions date to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. We have trick or treating, costumes, parties, decorations, events, parades etc
With Samhain, it was said the gap between the Otherworld and our world was at its closest so spirits would pass through, hence costumes and decorations to either blend in or scare them away. Bonfires were also common.
Traditionally, turnips were carved instead of pumpkins. One famous tradition is the ring instead the loaf of bairín breac, which whoever gets the slice with it is said to be next married. There are many regional and local traditions too.
It was cool to celebrate it in high school in Serbia, but people here dont like USA because of bombing so we were only cool to ourselves 🥲
Well in my small town (northen Poland) kids do go from house to house collecting Candy (you just have to know what houses are best left alone xD Old religious people aren’t happy about this new tradition).
We don’t decorate, but with each year more kids participate in collecting Candy/money/tea (whatever they get really) xD
In the Netherlands, I’ve never seen any real celebrations. Perhaps in Amsterdam, with lots of expats?
No, only kid events and international students parties. We have All Souls’ Day on the 2nd November. We go to the cemetery and put a wreath on the graves and light a candle for our loved ones.
There are Halloween parties in bars, restaurants and clubs, some stores add Halloween decorations to their windows from early October. Grocery Stores sell the non-edible pumpkin to carve. People can host costume parties at their home or go to the cinema to watch horror movies. When I was a child I went trick or treating in homes, apartments and stores with friends. Performative right wing politicians and Karens complain about it on Facebook (just Facebook no other social media).
One difference I’ve noticed from other countries for example what i see on American media, is that here people wear horror themed costumes only, so not shrek, princesses, celebrities etc.; maybe because we already have Carnevale in February (mardi gras) and that’s when people wear non-horror costumes.
Weird, and I’m personally not a fan. You don’t really get people trick or treating here in Denmark, yet some people still decorate their homes for it (how many and how much will vary depending where in the country you are – my experience says it’s more of a city thing). I have never had anyone knock on my door. Supermarkets will try to shove cheap and tacky plastic crap that will be thrown out in a month down your throat. It is wasteful and given how few people actually do anything substantial with it, I really don’t see the point of halloween at all.
It also helped dilute a much more fun carnival we have in February (fastelavn) in the sense that halloween didn’t get popular enough to really take off, but it took away attention from the actual celebration we used to have, so now neither is really celebrated fully, which is a shame
We have Sveti Luka(St Lucas) patroon day on Halloween so we don’t have Halloween like one in the West…
Some households decorate their house a little; a pumpkin lantern at the door etc., but very few go all-out. Unfortunately, kids have started trick-or-treating aw well. We already have Fastelavn (Carneval) in February for that. I honestly refuse to partake in Halloween trick-or-treating. Kids are usually very respectful, and it seems there’s a rule that they only knock at the doors of houses with a pumpkin lantern displayed (and no tricks played). Kudos for that!
My dad has told me, that when he was a child (in the 60s countryside), they’d make beet lanterns, stick them on spears and walk through town past people’s windows. I think that’s the extend to which is has been traditionally celebrated.
I might make a lantern this year – I just think it’s fun, and being born in late October, my birthday parties were usually Halloween themed. I can’t deny I like the spooks!
Halloween came to norway in the 90s…. as a result of USAian cultural imperialism in movies.
Handiing out sugar to the neighbourhood kids …. not something we can feel proud about.
We used to a have a similar tradition around Christmas time but this is more or less dead now.
Anyway, i celebrate by pretending not to be home 🤣
It’s not that big. Didn’t used to thing at all, but it spread through American media. Stores of course take any opportunity to sell more shit, so there’s Halloween promotions and themed decor and food. Clubs and bars might have a theme night. And apparently in some places children do the trick or treat thing (never anywhere where I lived though), but it’s not really a big deal.
Kids (and old kids…) go trick or treating in their costume.
Not that many groups, your doorbell might ring 5 or 6 times on Halloween. I haven’t opened the door in years
Stores will peddle as much Halloween-themed crap as they can. That’s about it, Halloween is not a thing to most Europeans, generally speaking.
In Spain is mostly party, ads and thematic sales from shops and malls. I’ve seen kids looking for candies a few times in my life, but that’s mostly in residential places where everyone knows everyone.
For families and elderly people the real deal is Todos los Santos, November 1st. It’s the cultural day to visit your dead relatives in the cementery.
Not. Its not part of our culture. Maybe some individuals celebrate this. But I cant tell when halloween is actually
Mostly not a thing here. My classmates had a costume party once, about a decade ago, and I vaguely remember Halloween sales’ TV ads
Corporations will theme their stores with pumpkins and stuff, and will sell cheap costumes so people can get shitfaced in a Halloween theme party. People will go out a bit more or make a two day trip, basically because All Saints Day is a national holiday. Other than that, it isn’t really celebrated.
Here in Asturias some people are trying to recover the ancient Celtic roots of it, in a celebration known as Nueche d’Ánimes (Souls’ night), but it isn’t a big thing.
Some kids go for candies but I saw them maybe twice in my life. Sometimes decoration are on cafes ect.
It has caught up. In the suburbia I live in there are quite a few small kids going from house to house. I also see kindergarteners all dressed up already in the morning and there are Halloween themed parties and a couple of pumpkins, but it’s not huge. All Saints Day the day after is a public holiday, so that’s convenient for parties, if you don’t have to show up with your family at granny‘s grave already in the morning.
Here in Northern Spain (Asturias and Galicia) we are having a kind of Samain revival (It was never really dead though)
It is a lame thing in NL, celebrated in some bars where they use it as a theme party where maybe 20% dresses up.
There’s a friendly debate as to who invented it between us and our friends over the sea (realistically it predates either country and the cut-off between Scottish and Irish [to use more modern terms] was much more fluid)*
It’s become more Americanised over the years. Pumpkins have mostly taken over from turnips, and unfortunately trick or treating is taking over from guising (broadly similar, but the children are expected to “earn” their treat by telling a joke or whatever).
*Almost every time Halloween is brought up on the bigger UK subs you’ll invariably have someone from England claiming it’s never been a thing in the UK and “just an American import”, not knowing it originated a lot closer to home than they realise.
Trick or treat has become more common for kids to do in the neighborhood. Unfortunately when i was a kid there was nothing to do for Halloween, but it’s becoming more common and i love it.
There are tons of decorations in stores for sure.
Older generations either don’t care or they think it’s satanic stuff.
Middle aged, same but some of them might like Halloween themed parties.
I have no idea what kind of parties children have, but it seems that they’re doing costume parties with spooky decorations.
In some places they try trick or treating and it doesn’t really work because most people don’t even remember that it’s Halloween and if they do they aren’t buying candy to randomly give to random children.
Young adults might go to parties or disco evenings with spooky decorations.
Overall: spooky decorations everywhere, people who’d party anyway use them.
Probably some people try and carve pumpkins. You know, the creative ones who love doing that kind of craft.
It’s a very very casual thing here (If you can even call it that) that you can easily miss if you don’t pay attention. You’ll definitely find Halloween decorations being sold in random homegoods stores, and TK Maxx dedicates the seasonal center of their basement to it.
Places like bars may have a themed evening and art house cinemas may have a few showings of creepy movies but that’s just about the extent of it. Personally I do decorate my house a little but that is because we love spooky shit anyway.
In Germany kids maybe in cities do a Halloween dress up.
There are different dress up dates – Sankt Martin’s, children make lanterns and walk through town in the evening (we used to have a guy on a horse leading the way, as that’s apparently what St Martin did, cut his cloak in half to give it to a homeless man) and sing songs. Making the lanterns was always a big thing in our Kindergarten.
Very traditionally, you’d bring some harvest into church at the end of autumn (afair it coincides with All Saint’s mass?)
Then on November 11th, Fasching time begins, which is an end of winter type of festival with parades before lent. Eating all the sweets and dressing up and being noisy. I think in Switzerland and Bulgaria, Romania etc they still do the more scary version of it, chasing winter away in February.
My nieces and nephews do a little trick or treat on their street, with my dad being the only one with some decorations like pumpkins…
I live in Ireland and around my neighbourhood, there are always 2 houses outdoing themselves with decorations, soundscape, lights, smoke machines etc for trick or treat. If there are a lot of children in the neighbourhood, people make am effort with outside decorations and having plenty of treats, opening the door in costumes and ask everyone about their costumes.
Austria: I was born in 1980. When I was a kid (remember: no internet) we only knew about Halloween from US TV shows (like Roseanne) and their Halloween episodes. We knew about trick or treating and that some people would have parties and decorate their houses but that’s it. We didn’t celebrate Halloween *at all*. Very few people may have carved a pumpkin with their kids but I am not sure if this was taken from US Halloween or maybe even from some other, local tradition. Also, All Saints Day (Nov 1) was still quite important then and it would have felt wrong to have it collide with a “loud” party night like Halloween.
In the mid to late 90s you started seeing a few items for Halloween in stores, like a few types of candy and maybe some plastic pumpkins with a light inside. Everyone would roll their eyes that ‘they’re trying to bring that American custom to Austria just to sell extra crap and make more money.’ This became more over the years and soon bars and pubs started having Halloween nights for adults. Obviously, they were happy about an extra day for people to get drunk and spend a lot of money (and the following days was a public holiday).
Then slowly it started to become more of a thing for kids as well. My niece was born in 2014 and when she was like 3 or 4 my sister started doing trick or treating with her in our small town (pop 1300). It was still so uncommon though, that she had to call potential houses beforehand if it was OK to come by with the kids on Halloween and if they could have a little candy ready.
Since than it has become more and more common and I would call it an established holiday now. Kids dress up for Halloween to school (I think), they carve pumpkins and have kids parties with decorated houses or gardens, they go trick or treating and quite a few households have candy. Every now and then you even see houses that decorate the whole front lawn like in the US (much less common though).
It’s still a party night for adults as well. I will attend a concert this year where my friend’s band plays their annual Halloween show and people will dress up for it.
I don’t think adults dress up for work at Halloween (yet). House parties for adults are also less common (afaik). I don’t think “sexy” costumes are as popular as in the US. Here it’s more gory costumes.
Teens will use the night to light fireworks. Not the pretty ones but more the loud, grenade-types. I’ve also heard that it’s a night where kids cause trouble, mostly in cities, like vandalism or fights with rival groups. Not sure how big of a problem that currently is.
More exciting in the UK, or at least England, is Guy Fawkes. Yes we have halloween tat, increasingly so with American influence, but bonfire night has fireworks and big fires and pyres and in my hometown, SQUIBBING! Turns out we do indeed hold a grudge for 400 years.
Edit: Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
Specifically on the what happens on Halloween itself. I have been up parties at the rugby club, and there’s a few kids trick or treating but it’s less than the tat at the supermarket implies. Personally I prefer a sketchy ass turnip to a pumpkin but I don’t carve either myself.
Eh we don’t really care.
But if you’re in London it’s just another excuse for an extravagant rave somewhere in a warehouse.
Shops and supermarkets keep trying to make it happen every year. Young adults go out to the bars and clubs wearing costumes and there’s usually decorations there too.
It’s not really a big deal here in Portugal. You’ll see kids dress up for school, as well as themed parties and events but that’s about it. We have Carnaval instead and that goes for more days.
Children will go trick or treating in some neighbourhoods because of course they won’t pass a chance to get some candy, schools will do a pumpkin carving class and stuff like that, but All Saints Day is way bigger. There’s A LOT of traffic on all roads in the country as people drive to old cemeteries, to their birth towns and villages, to light a candle on their grandma’s and great grandma’s graves.
Flowers are placed in the cemetery, there are some sweets such as roasted chestnuts, fritters, pestiños or panellets
Halloween in Europe isn’t really a big deal for most people. You’ll see some decorations, maybe a few parties or kids trick-or-treating here and there, but it’s nothing compared to how huge it is in the U.S. For many, it’s more of a fun excuse to dress up than an actual holiday.
The exposure has been through American tv series. It is known, but it is not an actual thing. The dressing up part is mostly done at Carnival (before the start of Lent).
The local school will have a fancy dress day where all the children wear in costumns instead of their uniforms, same for the local preschool, this year they are also having a halloween themed bakesale to raise money for the school. We ususally throw a party for our children where the bob for apples, have some brack to eat and find the hidden ring and other games and let them go trick or treating to their friends homes. Not a new thing in my family, we did the same in the 80’s but there were more home made costumes and more fireworks and bonfires, also we used to dip bull rushes in petrol and light them to use as torches. I might have a small bonfire in my garden this year just for our own family. Pre settling down to family life my house mates and I would always have house parties with friends, most would dress up and also bring food and alcohol to share.
37 comments
There might be some pumpkin here or there. Not much more than that in my experience. Oh and some people go out to party with costumes. Otherwise [All Saints day](https://sweden.se/culture/celebrations/all-saints-day-in-sweden), might be more “celebrated”.
In Ireland we claim to have invented it, many Halloween traditions date to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. We have trick or treating, costumes, parties, decorations, events, parades etc
With Samhain, it was said the gap between the Otherworld and our world was at its closest so spirits would pass through, hence costumes and decorations to either blend in or scare them away. Bonfires were also common.
Traditionally, turnips were carved instead of pumpkins. One famous tradition is the ring instead the loaf of bairín breac, which whoever gets the slice with it is said to be next married. There are many regional and local traditions too.
It was cool to celebrate it in high school in Serbia, but people here dont like USA because of bombing so we were only cool to ourselves 🥲
Well in my small town (northen Poland) kids do go from house to house collecting Candy (you just have to know what houses are best left alone xD Old religious people aren’t happy about this new tradition).
We don’t decorate, but with each year more kids participate in collecting Candy/money/tea (whatever they get really) xD
In the Netherlands, I’ve never seen any real celebrations. Perhaps in Amsterdam, with lots of expats?
We have [Sint Maarten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin%27s_Day), kids sing for candy.
No, only kid events and international students parties. We have All Souls’ Day on the 2nd November. We go to the cemetery and put a wreath on the graves and light a candle for our loved ones.
There are Halloween parties in bars, restaurants and clubs, some stores add Halloween decorations to their windows from early October. Grocery Stores sell the non-edible pumpkin to carve. People can host costume parties at their home or go to the cinema to watch horror movies. When I was a child I went trick or treating in homes, apartments and stores with friends. Performative right wing politicians and Karens complain about it on Facebook (just Facebook no other social media).
One difference I’ve noticed from other countries for example what i see on American media, is that here people wear horror themed costumes only, so not shrek, princesses, celebrities etc.; maybe because we already have Carnevale in February (mardi gras) and that’s when people wear non-horror costumes.
Weird, and I’m personally not a fan. You don’t really get people trick or treating here in Denmark, yet some people still decorate their homes for it (how many and how much will vary depending where in the country you are – my experience says it’s more of a city thing). I have never had anyone knock on my door. Supermarkets will try to shove cheap and tacky plastic crap that will be thrown out in a month down your throat. It is wasteful and given how few people actually do anything substantial with it, I really don’t see the point of halloween at all.
It also helped dilute a much more fun carnival we have in February (fastelavn) in the sense that halloween didn’t get popular enough to really take off, but it took away attention from the actual celebration we used to have, so now neither is really celebrated fully, which is a shame
We have Sveti Luka(St Lucas) patroon day on Halloween so we don’t have Halloween like one in the West…
Some households decorate their house a little; a pumpkin lantern at the door etc., but very few go all-out. Unfortunately, kids have started trick-or-treating aw well. We already have Fastelavn (Carneval) in February for that. I honestly refuse to partake in Halloween trick-or-treating. Kids are usually very respectful, and it seems there’s a rule that they only knock at the doors of houses with a pumpkin lantern displayed (and no tricks played). Kudos for that!
My dad has told me, that when he was a child (in the 60s countryside), they’d make beet lanterns, stick them on spears and walk through town past people’s windows. I think that’s the extend to which is has been traditionally celebrated.
I might make a lantern this year – I just think it’s fun, and being born in late October, my birthday parties were usually Halloween themed. I can’t deny I like the spooks!
Halloween came to norway in the 90s…. as a result of USAian cultural imperialism in movies.
Handiing out sugar to the neighbourhood kids …. not something we can feel proud about.
We used to a have a similar tradition around Christmas time but this is more or less dead now.
Anyway, i celebrate by pretending not to be home 🤣
It’s not that big. Didn’t used to thing at all, but it spread through American media. Stores of course take any opportunity to sell more shit, so there’s Halloween promotions and themed decor and food. Clubs and bars might have a theme night. And apparently in some places children do the trick or treat thing (never anywhere where I lived though), but it’s not really a big deal.
Kids (and old kids…) go trick or treating in their costume.
Not that many groups, your doorbell might ring 5 or 6 times on Halloween. I haven’t opened the door in years
Stores will peddle as much Halloween-themed crap as they can. That’s about it, Halloween is not a thing to most Europeans, generally speaking.
In Spain is mostly party, ads and thematic sales from shops and malls. I’ve seen kids looking for candies a few times in my life, but that’s mostly in residential places where everyone knows everyone.
For families and elderly people the real deal is Todos los Santos, November 1st. It’s the cultural day to visit your dead relatives in the cementery.
Not. Its not part of our culture. Maybe some individuals celebrate this. But I cant tell when halloween is actually
Mostly not a thing here. My classmates had a costume party once, about a decade ago, and I vaguely remember Halloween sales’ TV ads
Corporations will theme their stores with pumpkins and stuff, and will sell cheap costumes so people can get shitfaced in a Halloween theme party. People will go out a bit more or make a two day trip, basically because All Saints Day is a national holiday. Other than that, it isn’t really celebrated.
Here in Asturias some people are trying to recover the ancient Celtic roots of it, in a celebration known as Nueche d’Ánimes (Souls’ night), but it isn’t a big thing.
Some kids go for candies but I saw them maybe twice in my life. Sometimes decoration are on cafes ect.
It has caught up. In the suburbia I live in there are quite a few small kids going from house to house. I also see kindergarteners all dressed up already in the morning and there are Halloween themed parties and a couple of pumpkins, but it’s not huge. All Saints Day the day after is a public holiday, so that’s convenient for parties, if you don’t have to show up with your family at granny‘s grave already in the morning.
Here in Northern Spain (Asturias and Galicia) we are having a kind of Samain revival (It was never really dead though)
[Example in Asturian Language](https://www.mieres.es/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/cartel-web-Samain-2022.jpg)
It is a lame thing in NL, celebrated in some bars where they use it as a theme party where maybe 20% dresses up.
There’s a friendly debate as to who invented it between us and our friends over the sea (realistically it predates either country and the cut-off between Scottish and Irish [to use more modern terms] was much more fluid)*
It’s become more Americanised over the years. Pumpkins have mostly taken over from turnips, and unfortunately trick or treating is taking over from guising (broadly similar, but the children are expected to “earn” their treat by telling a joke or whatever).
*Almost every time Halloween is brought up on the bigger UK subs you’ll invariably have someone from England claiming it’s never been a thing in the UK and “just an American import”, not knowing it originated a lot closer to home than they realise.
Trick or treat has become more common for kids to do in the neighborhood. Unfortunately when i was a kid there was nothing to do for Halloween, but it’s becoming more common and i love it.
There are tons of decorations in stores for sure.
Older generations either don’t care or they think it’s satanic stuff.
Middle aged, same but some of them might like Halloween themed parties.
I have no idea what kind of parties children have, but it seems that they’re doing costume parties with spooky decorations.
In some places they try trick or treating and it doesn’t really work because most people don’t even remember that it’s Halloween and if they do they aren’t buying candy to randomly give to random children.
Young adults might go to parties or disco evenings with spooky decorations.
Overall: spooky decorations everywhere, people who’d party anyway use them.
Probably some people try and carve pumpkins. You know, the creative ones who love doing that kind of craft.
It’s a very very casual thing here (If you can even call it that) that you can easily miss if you don’t pay attention. You’ll definitely find Halloween decorations being sold in random homegoods stores, and TK Maxx dedicates the seasonal center of their basement to it.
Places like bars may have a themed evening and art house cinemas may have a few showings of creepy movies but that’s just about the extent of it. Personally I do decorate my house a little but that is because we love spooky shit anyway.
In Germany kids maybe in cities do a Halloween dress up.
There are different dress up dates – Sankt Martin’s, children make lanterns and walk through town in the evening (we used to have a guy on a horse leading the way, as that’s apparently what St Martin did, cut his cloak in half to give it to a homeless man) and sing songs. Making the lanterns was always a big thing in our Kindergarten.
Very traditionally, you’d bring some harvest into church at the end of autumn (afair it coincides with All Saint’s mass?)
Then on November 11th, Fasching time begins, which is an end of winter type of festival with parades before lent. Eating all the sweets and dressing up and being noisy. I think in Switzerland and Bulgaria, Romania etc they still do the more scary version of it, chasing winter away in February.
My nieces and nephews do a little trick or treat on their street, with my dad being the only one with some decorations like pumpkins…
I live in Ireland and around my neighbourhood, there are always 2 houses outdoing themselves with decorations, soundscape, lights, smoke machines etc for trick or treat. If there are a lot of children in the neighbourhood, people make am effort with outside decorations and having plenty of treats, opening the door in costumes and ask everyone about their costumes.
Austria: I was born in 1980. When I was a kid (remember: no internet) we only knew about Halloween from US TV shows (like Roseanne) and their Halloween episodes. We knew about trick or treating and that some people would have parties and decorate their houses but that’s it. We didn’t celebrate Halloween *at all*. Very few people may have carved a pumpkin with their kids but I am not sure if this was taken from US Halloween or maybe even from some other, local tradition. Also, All Saints Day (Nov 1) was still quite important then and it would have felt wrong to have it collide with a “loud” party night like Halloween.
In the mid to late 90s you started seeing a few items for Halloween in stores, like a few types of candy and maybe some plastic pumpkins with a light inside. Everyone would roll their eyes that ‘they’re trying to bring that American custom to Austria just to sell extra crap and make more money.’ This became more over the years and soon bars and pubs started having Halloween nights for adults. Obviously, they were happy about an extra day for people to get drunk and spend a lot of money (and the following days was a public holiday).
Then slowly it started to become more of a thing for kids as well. My niece was born in 2014 and when she was like 3 or 4 my sister started doing trick or treating with her in our small town (pop 1300). It was still so uncommon though, that she had to call potential houses beforehand if it was OK to come by with the kids on Halloween and if they could have a little candy ready.
Since than it has become more and more common and I would call it an established holiday now. Kids dress up for Halloween to school (I think), they carve pumpkins and have kids parties with decorated houses or gardens, they go trick or treating and quite a few households have candy. Every now and then you even see houses that decorate the whole front lawn like in the US (much less common though).
It’s still a party night for adults as well. I will attend a concert this year where my friend’s band plays their annual Halloween show and people will dress up for it.
I don’t think adults dress up for work at Halloween (yet). House parties for adults are also less common (afaik). I don’t think “sexy” costumes are as popular as in the US. Here it’s more gory costumes.
Teens will use the night to light fireworks. Not the pretty ones but more the loud, grenade-types. I’ve also heard that it’s a night where kids cause trouble, mostly in cities, like vandalism or fights with rival groups. Not sure how big of a problem that currently is.
More exciting in the UK, or at least England, is Guy Fawkes. Yes we have halloween tat, increasingly so with American influence, but bonfire night has fireworks and big fires and pyres and in my hometown, SQUIBBING! Turns out we do indeed hold a grudge for 400 years.
Edit: Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
Specifically on the what happens on Halloween itself. I have been up parties at the rugby club, and there’s a few kids trick or treating but it’s less than the tat at the supermarket implies. Personally I prefer a sketchy ass turnip to a pumpkin but I don’t carve either myself.
Eh we don’t really care.
But if you’re in London it’s just another excuse for an extravagant rave somewhere in a warehouse.
Shops and supermarkets keep trying to make it happen every year. Young adults go out to the bars and clubs wearing costumes and there’s usually decorations there too.
It’s not really a big deal here in Portugal. You’ll see kids dress up for school, as well as themed parties and events but that’s about it. We have Carnaval instead and that goes for more days.
Children will go trick or treating in some neighbourhoods because of course they won’t pass a chance to get some candy, schools will do a pumpkin carving class and stuff like that, but All Saints Day is way bigger. There’s A LOT of traffic on all roads in the country as people drive to old cemeteries, to their birth towns and villages, to light a candle on their grandma’s and great grandma’s graves.
Cemeteries look surreal on that night https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/1ba20f24e964.jpg
Flowers are placed in the cemetery, there are some sweets such as roasted chestnuts, fritters, pestiños or panellets
Halloween in Europe isn’t really a big deal for most people. You’ll see some decorations, maybe a few parties or kids trick-or-treating here and there, but it’s nothing compared to how huge it is in the U.S. For many, it’s more of a fun excuse to dress up than an actual holiday.
The exposure has been through American tv series. It is known, but it is not an actual thing. The dressing up part is mostly done at Carnival (before the start of Lent).
The local school will have a fancy dress day where all the children wear in costumns instead of their uniforms, same for the local preschool, this year they are also having a halloween themed bakesale to raise money for the school. We ususally throw a party for our children where the bob for apples, have some brack to eat and find the hidden ring and other games and let them go trick or treating to their friends homes. Not a new thing in my family, we did the same in the 80’s but there were more home made costumes and more fireworks and bonfires, also we used to dip bull rushes in petrol and light them to use as torches. I might have a small bonfire in my garden this year just for our own family. Pre settling down to family life my house mates and I would always have house parties with friends, most would dress up and also bring food and alcohol to share.