Halloween

All about Halloween 🎃

Halloween is October 31, the night before All Saints' Day, and it grew out of much older autumn festivals that marked the end of harvest and the start of the dark half of the year. Today it is mostly about costumes, candy, and being pleasantly spooked.

Because it is fixed to October 31, the countdown to Halloween always runs through the best part of fall — pumpkin patches, corn mazes, and the first cold evenings of the season.

How people celebrate Halloween

• Trick-or-treating around the neighborhood in costume
• Carving jack-o'-lanterns out of pumpkins
• Haunted houses, scary movies, and ghost stories
• Decorating porches with cobwebs, skeletons, and lights

Fun facts

• Jack-o'-lanterns were originally carved from turnips, not pumpkins.
• Halloween is one of the biggest candy-buying days of the year in the US.
• The word 'Halloween' comes from 'All Hallows' Eve.'

The countdown above updates live in your own time zone, so the days, hours, minutes, and seconds always match your local clock.