Days Until Halloween

About Halloween

October 31 has roots in the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, later layered with the Christian observance of All Hallows' Eve, the night before All Saints' Day on November 1.

Its modern trick-or-treating and costume traditions are largely associated with the US, though costume and pumpkin-carving customs have spread commercially to many other countries in recent decades.

Its position exactly 6 weeks before US Thanksgiving and roughly 8 weeks before Christmas makes it an informal marker of the start of the Northern Hemisphere's autumn holiday season for many US retailers and households.

Ireland and Scotland's older Samhain-linked customs include traditional games like apple bobbing and the carving of turnips rather than pumpkins, a detail that shifted specifically after Irish immigrants encountered the more abundant pumpkin in North America.