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Eight short horror stories to enjoy a scary Halloween at home under the blankets

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Eight short horror stories to enjoy a scary Halloween at home under the blankets

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These creepy tales should be read aloud on October 31 with the lights dimmed and a lit flashlight beneath your chin

A Halloween parade in Galway (Ireland) on October 28, 2018. Clodagh Kilcoyne (REUTERS)

Whether you're going out trick or treating or spooking friends at home, there's nothing like a spot of storytelling on Halloween and we have prepared a selection of dark tales to make your hair stand on end.

Part of the fun is adapting the stories as you tell them to make them seem to have happened close to your own home - or the home of a member of your audience. We have left a blank space (like this: "[....]") for you to insert your location of choice.

1. Head hunter

A family of four - two young children and their parents - were traveling on the road to [....] when their car broke down. The parents went out to look for help and left the radio on for the kids in case they got bored. By nightfall, the parents still hadn't returned. Sat in the darkness, the children continued to listen to the radio and grew alarmed when they heard that a dangerous killer was on the loose, having escaped from a prison nearby. The newsreader warned listeners to take extreme care when going about their business.

Time passed and the children waited. The silence outside the car was absolute until, suddenly, they heard knocking on the car roof above them. "Clank, clank, clank." The knocks grew louder and faster. "Douff, douff, douff." Unable to bear it any longer, the children opened the car doors and fled in terror.

Only the eldest dared to turn to see the source of their fear. On top of the car was a large man, who was bouncing two objects on the top of the vehicle: the heads of the children's parents.

[Compiled by camp monitors]

2. The madman under the bed

This is the story of a young girl from [....], called Sara. As a child, Sara was afraid of the dark and got a dog to keep her company. Subsequently, she slept peacefully knowing the dog was under her bed; if she was afraid, she only had to reach out her hand, and her dog would start licking it until she fell asleep.

Years went by like this and Sara grew up and the dog became old. One night, on the radio, she heard that a dangerous murderer was thought to be in the vicinity of [....]. With her dog at her side, Sara was not afraid: she got into bed, stretched out her hand and the dog, as was its wont, began to lick her.

She slept soundly and, when she woke up, she was surprised that the dog was still licking. Looking under the bed, she screamed. The dog lay dead and the tongue that was so tirelessly licking her belonged to a man.

[Compiled by camp monitors].

3. The graveyard challenge

Several teenage girls went for a sleepover at a friend's house, taking advantage of the fact that the parents were away. When they turned out the lights, they started talking about an old man who had just been buried in a nearby cemetery. It was said that he had been buried alive and could be heard scratching at the coffin, trying to get out.

One of the girls scoffed at the idea, so the others dared her to go visit the grave right there and then. As proof that she had actually gone, she was to drive a wooden stake into the earth of the grave. The girl left and her friends lay waiting for her to return.

But the hours went by and their friend failed to materialize. They lay awake, increasingly terrified. Morning came and the girl still had not appeared. So, when the parents came back, they all went down to the cemetery. There they found the girl lying on the grave. Dead. When she had bent down to drive the stake into the ground, she had caught the hem of her skirt. Struggling to get up, she thought the buried man had grabbed her. It was concluded that she died of fright.

[From Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid. The Book of Scary Urban Legends, by Jan Harold Brunvand].

4. "Have you been up to check the kids?"

A teenage girl was asked to babysit for a family that lived in a huge, luxurious house. It was her first evening on the job and, after she put the children to bed upstairs, she sat down in front of the TV. But no sooner had she settled there than the phone rang. The caller was a man. Gasping and laughing menacingly, he asked, "Have been up to check the children?"

The babysitter hung up, convinced that her friends were playing a joke on her, but the man called again, and again he asked, "Have you been up to check the children?" Again, she hung up, now frightened, but the man called a third time. This time, he said, "I've taken care of the kids, now I'm coming for you!"

By now, the babysitter was truly terrified. She called the police and reported the calls. The police told her to try to distract the man the next time he phoned to give them time to trace the call.

As expected, the man called back. The babysitter begged him to leave her alone, thus keeping him on the line for longer. Eventually he hung up. Immediately, the phone rang again. This time, it was the police: "Leave the house fast! The calls are coming from upstairs!"

[From Be Afraid... Be Very Afraid. The Book of Scary Urban Legends, by Jan Harold Brunvand].

5. The bony hand

A seven-year-old girl was left with her grandmother in her small apartment while her parents went to the movies. Grandmother and granddaughter had dinner together and chatted for a while. At ten o'clock, the grandmother picked up her sewing, and the little girl turned on the TV. They were sitting companionably together when the grandmother got a terrible thirst and asked her granddaughter to bring her a glass of water.

"It's too dark," said the girl.

"Don't be scared. Follow the corridor. There's a switch right next to the bathroom door."

The girl got up and felt her way along the wall of the corridor, groping for the switch. As she reached the bathroom, she stopped and felt around, only to come into contact with a bony hand that tried to drag her into the bathroom. The girl managed to pull away and ran, screaming and crying, back to her grandmother. After the incident, the girl needed psychological treatment. What happened, has never been established, though no one but the grandmother and the girl were in the apartment at the time.

[From the Scary Stories for Camps section of the oral popular culture website Anecdonet].

6. Come play with me

Some time ago, a friend of mine and I decided to do the Ouija board for the first time, something we had never dared to do before. We called two other friends to come and do it with us as I had been told that it was more likely something would happen if there were more people. We had a hard time convincing the other two, but, in the end, they agreed to come along. We got everything ready and, feeling a bit nervous, got started.

During the session, one of the girls we had called to join us said: "This is nonsense. I'm out of here." We got a little scared and decided to leave it for another time.

After a few days, the girl who had left called me, beside herself. She said that, as she was passing a derelict house near her home on the way back from the local library, a little girl dressed in white had asked to play with her. My friend told her that she couldn't as she was in a hurry to get home, and immediately the girl began to cry tears of blood. My friend fled and when she got home, she called me. At first, I thought she was pulling my leg, but something told me that was not the case.

I began to think about the day we had done the Ouija board and how abrupt my friend had been when she had got up to leave. I didn't give it much more thought and went to bed. The next day, my friend called me because she was going to be home alone studying and, as she was scared, she asked me to keep her company. I took a bus over to hers and we settled down with our books. After a while, we heard a scratching noise behind us. We both looked up and were horrified to find that the girl she had described to me was sitting on my friend's bed, scratching the wall. We ran out of the room and when we got to the front door, I noticed that my friend was not there, but I was so terrified, I couldn't make myself wait for her.

Shortly afterwards, the police called my house to tell me that my friend had died of an asthma attack. She had been found on the stairs of her house, with a terrified expression on her face. For several months after that, I was in treatment. I am now recovering, but the other day, a note appeared in my mailbox written in a little girl's hand that read, "Your friend died because she wouldn't play with me. I have a new doll..." I think it's a joke, since our story has become famous in our town, but on the other hand I'm scared. I wonder, will she come for me?

[From the Scary Stories for Camps section of the Anecdonet oral popular culture website].

7. Room for one more

A man named Joseph Blackwell came to [....] on a business trip. He stayed at the large house some friends owned on the outskirts of the city. That night they had a pleasant evening chatting and reminiscing about the past. But when Blackwell went to bed, he began to toss and turn and was unable to sleep.

At one point during the night, he heard a car pull into the driveway. He went to the window to see who might be arriving at such a late hour. In the moonlight, he saw a black hearse full of people. The driver looked up at him. When Blackwell saw his strange face, he shuddered. The driver called to him, "There's room for one more." He then waited a minute or two before driving off.

In the morning, Blackwell told his friends what had happened. "You were dreaming," they said. "That must have been it," he replied, "but it didn't seem like a dream." After breakfast he left for town and spent the day in the offices of one of the new high-rise buildings in the city.

Late in the afternoon, he was ready to go back to the house and was waiting for the elevator to take him down to the ground floor . But when it stopped at his floor, it was very full. One of the people inside looked at him and said, "There's room for one more." It was the driver of the hearse. "No, thank you," Blackwell said. "I'll wait for the next one."

The doors closed and the elevator began to descend. Moments later, there was a terrible crash and shouts and screams could be heard. The elevator had collapsed. All the people inside were killed.

[From Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, by Alvin Schwartz].

8. Rings on her fingers

Daisy Clark had been in a coma for over a month when the doctor declared her dead. She was buried on a cool summer day in a small cemetery about a mile from her home.

"May she always rest in peace," her husband said. But that was not how it turned out. Late that night, a grave robber armed with a shovel and a flashlight began to dig her up. As the earth was still loose, he quickly reached the coffin and opened it. His hunch was right. Daisy had been buried wearing two valuable rings: a diamond wedding ring and another studded with a brilliant ruby.

The thief knelt down and reached inside the coffin to take the rings, but they were completely stuck on Daisy's fingers. He decided that the only way to get them was to cut off her fingers. But when he took out his knife and began to saw at the flesh, it began to bleed, and Daisy began to twitch. Suddenly, she sat up! Terrified, the thief scrambled to his feet, accidentally knocking his flashlight which went out.

In the dark, he could hear Daisy emerge from her grave. The thief stood frozen, clutching the knife in his hand. On seeing him there, Daisy covered herself with her shroud and asked, "Who are you?" Hearing the "corpse" speak, the grave robber ran. Daisy shrugged and kept walking, not bothering to look back.

Seized by fear and confusion, the thief fled in the wrong direction and fell headfirst into the open grave, onto his own knife. As Daisy walked home, the thief bled to death.

[From Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, by Alvin Schwartz].

More information

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Eight short horror stories to enjoy a scary Halloween at home under the blankets

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These creepy tales should be read aloud on October 31 with the lights dimmed and a lit flashlight beneath your chin

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Scary stories for kids that are perfect for Halloween... ghost stories, monsters, witches, trick or treat, black cats, and things that go BUMP in the night!

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Halloween image by Larisa Koshkina

Please enjoy this collection of great stories, featuring ghosts, ghouls, vampires and other supernatural phenomena. These stories and poems are a fun and entertaining way to get in the mood for Halloween. For more, visit Gothic, Ghost, Horror & Weird Library. You may also enjoy Mystery Stories. Especially for young children, we offer Halloween Stories for Children

The Monkey's Paw - W.W. Jacobs

Luella Miller - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Washington Irving

'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad' - M.R. James

The Cask of Amontillado - Edgar Allan Poe

Sredni Vashtar - H.H. Munro (SAKI)

The Furnished Room - O. Henry

The Phantom Coach - Amelia B. Edwards

The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe

The Cats of Ulthar - H.P. Lovecraft

The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen

The Romance of Certain Old Clothes - Henry James

Yuki-Onna - Lafcadio Hearn

The Terrible Old Man - H.P. Lovecraft

The Beast With Five Fingers - W.F. Harvey

The Pale Man - Julius Long

Lazarus - Leonid Andreyev

The Phantom Rickshaw - Rudyard Kipling

Afterward - Edith Wharton

The Black Cat - Edgar Allan Poe

The Middle Toe of the Right Foot; The Damned Thing; The Moonlit Road; and One Summer Night - Ambrose Bierce

Skeleton Lake, The Woman's Ghost Story, and The Empty House - Algernon Blackwood

What Was It? - Fitz-James O'Brien

A Ghost Story - Mark Twain

The Secret of Goresthorpe Grange - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Striding Place - Gertrude Atherton

A Pair of Hands: An Old Maid's Ghost-Story - Arthur Quiller-Couch

Joseph: A Story - Katherine Rickford

Song of the Witches (Macbeth) - William Shakespeare

The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe

Goblin Feet - J.R.R. Tolkien

Hallowe'en in a Suburb - H.P. Lovecraft

Halloween - Robert Burns

Phantasmagoria - Lewis Carroll

The Ballad of the Fairy Thorn-Tree - Dora Sigerson Shorter

Ready for more? Enjoy The Gothic, Ghost, Horror, and Weird Library

Return to American Literature Home Page

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a pair of hands: an old maid's ghost-story

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Halloween, Horror, Ghost & Gothic Stories

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A selection of great short stories from the Gothic, Horror, and Weird genres featuring classics like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Black Cat, The Monkey's Paw and other favorites.

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7 Spooky Short Stories to Teach Around Halloween

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7 Spooky Short Stories to Teach Around Halloween

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I absolutely adore teaching spooky, creepy, scary short stories. The suspense, the twists and turns in the plot lines, and the sinister characters always seem to draw students in. This is why I use Halloween as an excuse to spend Octobers studying my favorite eerie and freaky short stories.

Below you'll find a list of my absolute favorite ones that are great to teach around Halloween (or really at any time in the year) along with some teaching tips and assignment ideas!

If you'd like to check out this complete unit in my store, click here ===> Spooky Short Story Unit

This story follows Eckels, a hunter who pays to go back in time to hunt the most ferocious beast that ever lived: the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The hunters are given strict instructions not to touch anything while visiting the past as any small interruption of the natural process could have an irreversible effect on the future. Unfortunately, when fear enters the equation, things don't quite go as planned!

When I teach this story, I usually begin with a little pre-reading discussion on time travel. I have students imagine that they have access to a time machine and have the opportunity to go back to witness a historical event or meet a particular person from the past. You'll be really surprised at the variety of choices from your students. I also have them consider whether the invention of a time travel would be a positive or a negative.

After students have read the original text, I also love to show them the EC Comics adaptation of the story as it stays incredibly true to the plot line and hooks even your most reluctant readers. You can access this version here ===>: EC Comic Interpretation Of A Sound Of Thunder

The literary elements I focus on during this story are characterization (particularly the development of Eckels) foreshadowing, figurative comparisons (metaphor, simile, personification are used throughout the text), and the theme that even small things can have a big impact (the butterfly effect).

Bradbury is known for his ability to create vivid images for his readers, so for a final assignment, I focus on improving students' descriptive writing by having them examine Bradbury's description of the T-Rex (see an excerpt below and be prepared to be blown away by the imagery). I have students use it as inspiration to write their own descriptive paragraph .

Enter Mary Maloney, a loving and devoted housewife who receives the terrible and unexpected news that her husband is leaving her. Mary, in her incredible shock, enters a trance and commits an unspeakable act that no one sees coming.

I do a whole-class reading of this story and choose students to play the different roles. I bring in some basic costume props (and by bring in, I mean swipe from the school's theatre costume room) and have students come to the front of the class to read their lines and act out the scene. They really get into the story this way, and of course, they love the part with the frozen lamb leg! A little tip: print out a script for each character and highlight each of their individual parts. It makes things go much more smoothly.

Here is a list of what you might want to have for costumes and props

Yarn/thread and needle

A glass

Something that looks like a leg of lamb (I just stuff a brown paper bag - see picture below)

Potatoes, a can of beans, and cheesecake (you can also just print pictures of these things)

A woman's dress (for Mary)

An apron (for the grocer)

Dress shirts with police badges (print a badge) for Patrick, Noonan, and O'Malley

The literary element I focus most on with this story is dramatic irony. We also discuss the idea of guilt and whether or not Mary's actions were justified. It always makes for an interesting ethical discussion.

As a final creative assignment, I have students write Mary Maloney's Secret Diary. They write three entries from specific important moments in the plot.

Enter the mind of a disturbed narrator attempting to convince the reader of his sanity while telling the story of how he came to commit a murder. The story focuses on the reasons for the man's actions, the process he takes, and the guilt and paranoia he feels.

There are lots of new vocabulary terms in this story, so before we even begin reading, we do some pre-reading vocabulary work to prep students for this more challenging read. After reading, we also do some work with figurative language as Poe so skillfully uses alliteration, simile, and personification in this story as a tool to enhance description. I also have students examine the internal conflict (person vs. self) of the speaker and consider whether or not he is a reliable or unreliable narrator.

As a final creative assignment, I have students choose between two assignments.

The first one has students create a detailed police report from one of the police officer's perspective. Students will include a detailed account of the 'suspect', the crime scene, and the evidence.

The second assignment has students write a prequel or a sequel to the story. If students choose prequel, they explain how the narrator came to live with the old man and what came to make him so fearful of "the eye." If students choose sequel, they will explain what happens after the speaker confesses his crime.

Sergeant-Major Morris arrives at the White family residence with a monkey's paw that has the power to grant three wishes. He warns the family that the paw is cursed and attempts to burn it in the fire, but Mr. White snatches it up for himself. Through a series of unfortunate events, the family learns that perhaps it is true that you should be careful what you wish for!

The literary elements I focus on in this story are mood (shifts dramatically from the start of this story to the end), symbolism (the paw as a symbol for greed), and allusion (Arabian Nights & Aladdin).

I also have students complete an "It Says, I Say, And So" Character Analysis for each of the characters. This type of graphic organizer has students find a passage from the reading that reveals a character trait (It Says). In the second column, students explain the personality trait revealed (I Say), and in the final column they explain why/how this character trait is revealed (And So).

As a final assignment, students imagine that Mr. White can't locate the monkey's paw when his wife unbolts the door. They have to write an alternate ending and describe what is on the other side of the door!

Trickster, Vera, tells a spooky ghost story to the unsuspecting and nervous Mr. Nuttel. He is the perfect victim for her plot, and she sets the story up to give him a rather shocking ending.

This is a typical Saki story with a light-hearted beginning and a macabre twist ending. The story is useful for examining situational irony and flashback. After some preliminary work with vocabulary and some reading comprehension questions, I use this story to help students examine the plot diagram. Although it does employ flashback, it is actually a fairly typical plot structure for students to examine and understand the story arc.

I end with a creative writing exercise where students take on the role of the nervous and anxious Mr. Nuttel at the end of the story and write a letter to his sister after he has bolted out of the Sappleton residence.

The villagers of a small town gather in the town square for the annual tradition of the town lottery. As the story progresses, the reader soon starts to realize that this is a lottery that one might not want to win.

I love to start this story off with a bit of discussion about strange traditions that we still follow today (trick or treating, the President pardoning the turkey for Thanksgiving, predicting weather with a groundhog). Students discuss why we follow traditions, if they are easy to change, and what superstitions they have.

Symbolism is so important in The Lottery, so we spend time discussing symbolism before we even begin reading. I tell them to pay attention to descriptions of setting, weather, character names, and objects in the story and consider what they might symbolize.

As a final assignment, students create a newspaper for the town in which The Lottery is set. They write a headline article explaining the results of this year's lottery, a special interview with a character, an obituary for Mrs. Hutchinson, and a life and times article about a topic of their choice.

Check out my resources for teaching this story here ===>The Lottery

Billy Weaver, a successful businessman travels to a small city called Bath. He finds a local bed and breakfast for lodging that is run by a landlady. Billy comes to learn that the only two other guests who have ever stayed at the B&B have names that he recognizes. The reader may soon learn that the landlady is not as innocent as she first appears.

There are lots of elements to discuss in The Landlady (characterization, mood, foreshadowing, setting), so I created an analysis booklet for students to complete after reading this story. It includes 6 analysis questions a graphic organizer to analyze character traits of either Billy or the landlady, and a creative response where students write a headline newspaper article about what happens to Billy after the story ends.

I hope this gives you some stories to teach around Halloween and some creative assignment ideas!

***

Bonnie from Presto Plans is a Teacher-Author who lives in New Brunswick, Canada with her husband and son. In her career, she has taught English at all of the middle and high school grade levels and has received her advanced certification in Literacy Education. Her goal is to create fun and engaging teaching resources that help develop students' skills in reading and writing. For more teaching tips and exclusive free resources, sign up to receive emails from Presto Plans. You can also connect by following her blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

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7 Spooky Short Stories to Teach Around Halloween

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I absolutely adore teaching spooky, creepy, scary short stories. The suspense, the twists and turns in the plot lines, and the sinister characters always seem to draw students in. This is why I use Halloween as an excuse to spend Octobers studying my favorite eerie and freaky short stories.

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25 Halloween Books So Scary, They'll Keep You Up For the Rest of the Year

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25 Halloween Books So Scary, They'll Keep You Up For the Rest of the Year

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We love Halloween for many reasons, from the over-the-top, elaborate costumes (who doesn't love an excuse to play dress-up?) and surplus of sweets to the spirited decorations and autumn-some activities like apple picking. But the real Hallow's Eve treat? Scary stories. We rounded up 20 horror novels, psychological thrillers, and fantasies full of ghosts, goblins, witches, and supernatural beings for the ultimate reading list of Halloween books to get you in the spirit. We even included collections of short stories for those of you who'd rather get through it in one sitting (or if you want to read with a group), as well as a critical theory book unpacking our obsession with haunted houses. Though some are October 31st-specific, these books will keep you up and entertained at night all year long.

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25 Halloween Books So Scary, They'll Keep You Up For the Rest of the Year

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We love Halloween for many reasons, from the over-the-top, elaborate costumes (who doesn't love an excuse to play dress-up?) and surplus of sweets to the spirited decorations and autumn-some activities like apple picking. But the real Hallow's Eve treat? Scary stories.

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33 Best Halloween Books That'll Give You All the Goosebumps

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33 Best Halloween Books That'll Give You All the Goosebumps

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These Halloween books are all about witches, vampires, and more. Adults will love these scary stories that will get you in the mood for October 31.

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Top 10 Halloween Movies for School-Age Kids

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Top 10 Halloween Movies for School-Age Kids

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Halloween is a time for spooks and haunts, for tricks and treats, but also for great movies. There are many Halloween movies that are great for middle schoolers - depending on how easily frightened the child may be.

The following movies are all rated PG, except for some in the " Harry Potter" franchise, but all have scenes that are designed to be scary.

In a world where each holiday has its own town, Jack Skellington embarks on a search for something more than the dreariness of his home Halloween Town. Inspired by his discovery of Christmas Town, Jack tries to bring a little Christmas spirit back home.

Some of the characters may be scary to very young children, but this musical voyage is familiar to a lot of young parents as a film that shaped their childhood. Tim Burton's beautiful animation and fun lyricism will take your attention from Halloween to Christmas and back again.

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Top 10 Halloween Movies for School-Aged Kids

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Halloween is a time for spooks and haunts, for tricks and treats, but also for great movies. There are many Halloween movies that are great for middle schoolers - depending on how easily frightened the child may be.

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62 Best Halloween Movies for Kids for Every Level of Bravery

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62 Best Halloween Movies for Kids for Every Level of Bravery

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A Definitive List of the Best Halloween Movies for Kids to Keep in Rotation All October

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When you get in a Halloween mood, sometimes all you want to do is draw the curtains, turn out the lights, pop some popcorn and settle in for a Halloween movie. But if there are kids who want in on the fun, you have to figure out what level of spookiness they can handle.

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40 Fun Halloween Movies for Kids - Teaching Expertise

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As Halloween approaches, you may be looking for some new favorite movies to add to your family’s movie night. Since scary movies are not exactly kid-friendly,

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The 5 best Halloween movies to improve your English

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The 5 best Halloween movies to improve your English

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The 5 best Halloween movies to improve your English | Oxford House Barcelona

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Boo! Are you a fan of Halloween? It's that scary time of year again when the creepy creatures come out to play, and there's an excellent resource to help you learn English: Netflix! Netflix has an extensive selection of Halloween movies to choose from - perfect to get in the spooky mood as we approach ...

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Video Roundup: Halloween Movies For Students

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Video Roundup: Halloween Movies For Students

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Halloween is right around the corner, and teachers can spend October bringing Halloween-themed lesson plans, activities, crafts, recipes, and more into their classrooms.

One large part of Halloween is sharing scary stories, and EducationWorld has curated a video-roundup of Halloween videos teachers can share with their students in the classroom, as part of a larger lesson or on Friday afternoons. In addition to a description of each video, we include a suggested grade level and in the spirit of Halloween, "scare factor".
HappyTrickOWeen! The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat

Source: Unknown YouTube user

Grade Level: K-5

Run Time: 11:36

Description: In this story, Brother and Sister are planning out their trick or treat route, and want to avoid Miz McGrizz's spooky home. Mother Bear, however, teach the kids that looks can be deceiving.

Scare Factor: Very low. This is a story about Halloween, but focuses more on life lessons that children can take with them. There is also a lesson about bullying, which fits with National Bullying Prevention Month.
Winnie the Pooh's Halloween Stories
Source: YouTube User, DisneyHolidayNet

Grade Level: K-5

Run Time: 1:01:15

Description: Join Winnie the Pooh and his friends as they encounter five spooky adventures, including Tigger's story about "Frankenpooh", and another story about the crew going on a ghost chase, where they find Eeyore glued to a swingset. Students will learn life lessons such as friendship, sharing, and more.

Scare Factor: These collections of videos could be scary for the younger crowd, but just as Tigger tells Piglet, it is best to discover and realize what is real and what isn't. For the older students, the video will be entertaining and will get them into the Halloween spirit.
Lumpkin the Pumpkin
Source: Unknown YouTube user

Grade Level: K-6

Run Time: 22:35

Description: Halloween is here and there is a contest between the jack-o-lanterns and witches to see who can scare children the best. Tara the Good Witch and Lumpkin the Pumpkin don't want to scare children, and decide they can show children how to have fun on Halloween and keep kids safe.

Scare Factor: This video isn't that scary, and students will enjoy the video. The story is entertaining and has an interesting twist.
Tell-Tale Heart
Source: Unknown YouTube User

Grade Level: 7-12

Run Time: 19:40

Description: This short film from 1941 follows the storyline of Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Tell-Tale Heart", a story about a man who goes mad and murders a man with a disturbing looking eye. Teachers can access the story here.

Scare Factor: Edgar Allen Poe can be considered the king of creepy stories, so students will have chills up their spine as they watch this man attempt to claim sanity as he kills a man with an eerie, disturbing eye.
The Raven: Read by Christopher Walker
Source: Unknown YouTube user

Grade Level: 7-12

Run Time: 8:51

Description: Students can follow this script of Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Raven" as they listen to Christopher Walken read the story with creepy background noise. This is a story about a man who is thinking about the loss of his love, Lenore, when he is visited by a raven.

Scare Factor: This video will creep students out, for it is a creepy story. Teachers can turn the sound on and turn the lights off as students listen to this spooky tale.

Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor

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Video Roundup: Halloween Movies For Students

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Halloween is right around the corner, and teachers can spend October bringing Halloween-themed lesson plans, activities, crafts, recipes, and more into their classrooms. One large part of Halloween is sharing scary stories, and EducationWorld has curated a video-roundup of Halloween videos teachers can share with their students in the classroom, as part of a larger lesson or on Friday afternoons.

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SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH - WATCH ONLINE

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SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH - WATCH ONLINE

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Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name. The show premiered on September 27, 1996 on ABC to over 17 million viewers in its "T.G.I.F." line-up. The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, an American teenage half-witch who, on her sixteenth birthday, discovers she has magical powers. She lives with her 600-year-old aunts, European witches Hilda and Zelda, and their magical talking cat Salem in the fictional town of Westbridge, Massachusetts through most of the series. The series' first four seasons aired on ABC from September 27, 1996 to May 5, 2000; the final three seasons ran on The WB from September 22, 2000 to April 24, 2003.

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Watch Sabrina, the Teenage Witch full HD Free - TheFlixer

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Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name. The show premiered on September 27, 1996 on ABC to over 17 million viewers in its "T.G.I.F." line-up. The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, an American teenage half-witch who, on her sixteenth birthday, discovers she has magical powers.

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Candy Tasting, UNICEF and More: 9 Unique ESL Activities for Halloween 

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Candy Tasting, UNICEF and More: 9 Unique ESL Activities for Halloween 

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October is here, and so is the time for haunted houses, spider webs and Halloween activities for your ESL classes!

For some ESL students, this will be their first introduction to the late October holiday. It's always fun to share a little with students from around the world about how the holiday is celebrated in America.

But Halloween fun can be a learning tool, too. Here are nine ESL activities you can do with your class that will both build their language skills and give them a little spooky excitement too.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

If you're after another great resource that introduces diverse and exciting content to your students, be sure to check out FluentU.
In fact, with FluentU you can get your students thoroughly enthused about English culture and introduce special days such as Halloween with fun and relevant content!
1. Halloween Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are fun to do with ESL students. Just about anyone likes the challenge of pronunciation acrobatics, and it's easy to tailor them to Halloween or any other holiday. Start by explaining that tongue twisters are pronunciation challenges that use the same or similar sounds in short phrases or verses.

You might want to give your students a few classic examples such as "red leather yellow leather," "rubber baby buggy bumpers" and "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood." Once students get the idea, challenge them to write their own Halloween tongue twisters.

As a class, brainstorm some words associated with Halloween, like "goblin," "monster," "ghost," etc. When it's time to write the tongue twisters, start with a spooky Halloween term and add words with similar sounds to make a phrase. You can use the following examples or write your own.
Glowing ghosts gobble goodies. Warty witches wish for watches. Big bats match hats. Musty mummies make monster masks.
Celebrate your tricky phrases with a reading contest in which each person reads their tongue twister for the class-five times fast, of course!

2. Halloween Word Find

This super simple activity takes no advance preparation, and it's a great way to introduce your students to some new vocabulary. Write the word "Halloween" on the board in large letters. Then explain to your students that they will have 1-3 minutes (your call) to make as many English words as they can using only the letters that make up the word "Halloween."

Start the timer and let students rack their brains for as many words as they can come up with. When time is up, have students take turns sharing their words. If anyone has a word that another student also listed, both must cross it off their paper.

Once everyone has shared their words, the person with the most words remaining on their list wins a Halloween prize. If you like, repeat the activity with other Halloween-themed words such as "Frankenstein" and "ghost stories."

3. Candy Taste Test

Who doesn't like an excuse to eat candy in class? Halloween is the perfect time of year to host a candy taste test with your students. Bring in three different types of Halloween candies for students to taste (allergies permitting).

Before starting the activity, review with your students how to form comparative and superlative adjectives. Then let each student try each of the sweets you brought in.

After tasting each candy, your students should make notes about how it tastes. For example:
This one tastes sweeter than the first. This candy is the hardest.
This is a good time to remind students of adjectives that describe flavor. Once they have tasted and described each candy, students write a paragraph saying which candy was best. They should use comparative and superlative adjectives to support their opinions in the paragraph.

4. Halloween Scattergories

This classic game is great for teaching ESL students new and less common vocabulary. Start by brainstorming a list of things associated with Halloween (i.e. candy, monsters, costumes, etc.). These will be the categories for the rest of the game.

From your list, choose the six best categories. Then roll a letter die or choose a letter of the alphabet at random. (Avoid less common letters such as x, q, v, j, etc.) Then give your students one minute to think of a word that fits each category and that starts with the letter you rolled.

For example, for the letter "D," they might answer something like "candy: dark chocolate, monster: Dracula, costume: dog." Have students share their answers with the class and cross out any repeats to get their score for that round. Play three rounds with three different letters. The person with the highest score for the combined rounds wins a Halloween prize.

5. Guess Who

This is a simple game that even beginning students can play. As a class, brainstorm a list of creepy Halloween creatures-such as bats, black cats, Frankenstein, mummies, etc. From the list, each person chooses one creature and writes three clues about it. Make sure they don't write down the name of the Halloween creature, though!

Tell your students to number their clues and make the most obvious clues last in the list. Students take turns sharing their clues and guessing which Halloween creature each person chose.

If a student guesses correctly after one clue, they score three points. After two clues, two points. After three clues, one point. Keep score and give a prize to the person with the highest score at the end of the game.

6. "The Scream"

Show students Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream." Put students in groups of three to talk about the painting. Have them discuss the following two questions:

What happened?

Why is this person screaming?

If your students are beginning or intermediate, have them discuss the painting using the simple past tense. If your students are intermediate or advanced, consider having them discuss what could have happened using the past conditional tense with modal verbs.

As they discuss and write, they should use whatever tense you assigned. (If you decide to have students work in the conditional for this activity, you might want to take a few minutes at the beginning of class to review conditionals.)

After their discussion time, have groups work together to write a scary story using the painting for inspiration. Give groups a chance to read their stories to the rest of the class or compile the stories into a class book for students to read during free learning periods.

7. Doing Good with UNICEF

Since many of your students might not know much about Halloween, take a few minutes to discuss the practice of trick-or-treating. Ask students to share what they know about it, and then answer any questions they have.

After your discussion, explain that UNICEF is an international organization that works to promote the rights and improve the lives of every child in every situation. Then share with your students how some children will choose to trick or treat for UNICEF, collecting money for the organization rather than candy for themselves.

Have your students discuss the following questions in groups of three or four.

If you were a kid, would you ever trick or treat for UNICEF instead of getting candy for yourself?

What is something kind you have done or would like to do for someone you don't know?

What are other ways we can help children around the world?

8. Haunted House Brochures

Have you ever been to a haunted house? Have your students? This pastime is popular in the fall leading up to Halloween. Ask your students to share any experiences they have had visiting a haunted house. Share your own experiences, too.

Then have students work in groups of three to design their own haunted house, with pictures if you like. Have each group design a brochure advertising their haunted house. Display the brochures for the class and have your students vote on which haunted house is the scariest, or which they would like to visit in real life.

9. Scary Advice

Everyone needs advice at some point, and scary situations are a good time to ask for it. Start this activity by reviewing modal verbs with your students. Then show your students some advice letters such as those written to Dear Abby.

Challenge your students to think of a scary situation (either realistic or ridiculous) in which they might like advice. Have each person write a letter to Dear Abby. Collect the letters and redistribute them to your students.

Each person will now pretend to be Abby and give advice to their classmate using modal verbs in their answer. Collect the letters and display them on a bulletin board laid out to look like a newspaper.

Halloween is a fun holiday filled with spooky monsters and sweet treats. It's also a fun way to incorporate U.S. culture into language lessons.

Your students can work on pronunciation, grammar, speaking, reading and writing all while having fun and satisfying their sweet tooth. Try these activities and everyone will walk away from class with a smile on their lips and a shiver in their spine.

And One More Thing...

If you're looking for creative ways to teach English, then you'll love using FluentU in your classroom!

It's got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch regularly. There are tons of great choices there when you're looking for songs for in-class activities.

You'll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids' singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.

On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students.

Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.

For example, if a student taps on the word "searching," they'll see this:

Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like "fill in the blank."

It's perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it's guaranteed to get your students excited about learning English!

Sign up for a free trial and bring FluentU to your classroom today.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
Bring English immersion to your classroom!

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9 Fantastically Diverse Halloween Activities for ESL Students of All Ages

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October is here, and so is the time for haunted houses, spider webs and Halloween activities for your ESL classes! For some ESL students, this will be their first introduction to the late October holiday. It's always fun to share a little with students from around the world about how the holiday is celebrated in America.

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Here's a spooky mix of Halloween activities and worksheets taken from different sections of our site. Don't forget to turn down the lights and put on some atmospheric music to create a perfectly chilling atmosphere.

Teaching Online

For online Halloween activities, see our sister site LearnHip.com

Halloween Half Crossword

Pairs of students are each given half of a complete Halloween crossword and must describe to their partners the missing words which they need. There's a picture key provided to help with presenting the language.

There are plenty more half crosswords to download and print on the collaborative crosswords page.

Sounds of Halloween Quiz

This Halloween Quiz [LearnHip.com] has 15 scary sounds associated with Halloween and horror movies - play the clip and ask your students to guess what each sound is.

See Guess the Sound Quizzes [LearnHip.com] for more.

Fortune Telling

Students tell each other's fortunes by pulling random runes from a receptacle and divining their partner's destiny. The fortune-telling activity includes lots of ready to cut out runes.

There is also an online fortune-telling game, just give students the URL and they can play with their phones or on a shared screen.

Halloween Taboo

Here's a sheet of 50 ready to cut out Halloween Taboo cards. Teams of students compete against each other to describe random spooky words to their teammates.

See How to Play Taboo for more tips on how to play and lots of other ready to cut out cards.

Halloween Picture Taboo

This is a collection of Halloween-themed pictures to download to a smartphone or tablet. Students take it in turns to describe the object they see and then show it to the class. If nobody knows the English word, then they can give the answer in their L1 or google it. The device is then passed to the next person who swipes to the next picture. Please note the web app will only work with smartphones and tablets.

Halloween ( zipped photoset / web app)

For more downloadable picture sets see the Picture Taboo page.

Halloween Conversation Cards

Groups of students work through a list of Halloween-related vocabulary and idioms before pulling cards from a deck of Halloween related Conversation Questions.

There are plenty more ready to cut out Conversation Cards on the Conversation Questions page.

Halloween Scatter Sheet

Scatter sheets are a great way to review vocabulary. Give each student a Halloween scatter sheet and they take it in turns to select and describe a word and cross out completed words. It gets harder as you go.

There are lots more scatter sheets to download and print on the Scatter Sheets page.

Halloween Survey

Perfect for teens. Give each student a copy of the Halloween Survey and have them interview their partner. At the end go through the questions one by one and listen to the opinions and experiences of the class.

There are more surveys on the Speaking Activities page.

Halloween Articles

Here are a couple of interesting articles relating to Halloween that you can use for reading practice, discussion purposes, etc.

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Here's a spooky mix of Halloween activities and worksheets taken from different sections of our site. Don't forget to turn down the lights and put on some atmospheric music to create a perfectly chilling atmosphere.

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Halloween worksheets and online exercises

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Halloween worksheets and online activities. Free interactive exercises to practice online or download as pdf to print.

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Trick or treat!

Are you looking for Halloween-themed materials to use this October? We have plenty of ready-made lessons and ideas for teaching English during the Halloween season. In this collection, you'll find lesson plans, blog posts, warm-ups, flashcards, videos, and usage tips. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

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Are you looking for Halloween-themed materials to use this October? We have plenty of ready-made lessons and ideas for teaching English during the Halloween season. In this collection, you'll find...

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25 Free Halloween Classroom Games for Children

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25 Free Halloween Classroom Games for Children

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If you, like ourselves, are teaching English as a foreign language many of your students will have little or no idea other than they get to eat as many sweets as they like.

October 31st (Halloween), started as an Irish festival celebrating the end of summer and their calendar year. They believed the spirit world was allowed to intermingle with the living on this day, similar to the Buddhist Obon festival. However, the Irish thought that only the souls of those who had died the previous year would return to look for bodies to inhabit for their afterlife.

While the Obon spirits are guided home, the Halloween spirits are scared away by the living dressed up in frightening costumes. Over time, different cultures and religions have added their own traditions to Halloween, making it what we celebrate today.

Halloween is...

A day of fun and imagination - you can dress up and be whoever you want to for a day! A day of games and community - everyone gets together to celebrate, and neighbours are with children going door-to-door "Trick-or-Treating" for goodies ) candy, toys, food)! A day to play pranks and have a laugh giving people a scare!

Think Ghosts, Spiders, Witches, Black Cats, Skeletons, Jack-o-Lanterns, and Vampires!

Trick-or-Treat and Happy Halloween!

Note: Anything involving food needs to be checked with the kindergarten well in advance.

Resources from The Magic Crayons
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Have tubes of black cardboard that can be rolled and stapled (or sellotaped) into a cone shape. Decorate with brightly coloured paper shapes, foam shapes from Summer School, or Halloween pictures that the kids can colour in. Certificates/awards/prizes - lollies - could be given for the most imaginative/scary/colourful etc, making enough categories so that everyone gets a prize. A last-day of Halloween activity perhaps, then they can wear their hats home.

Resources from Amazon for this Game
As an Amazon Associate The Magic Crayons earn from qualifying purchases

Materials: Cardboard, construction paper
Class size: whole class
How to play

Have various "monster" body parts photocopied on cardboard/construction paper that the children can colour in and cut out. Use Sellotape or glue and the kids can create their own monster. Have different cutouts: Witch, having a pointy hat and a broomstick and a black cat... Goblin, with green slime and a bommyknocker... etc. Or you could encourage "crazy monsters" and have a witches body, a goblins head, a ghosts bottom, with vampire accessories (bat, cape etc)

Resources from Amazon for this Game
As an Amazon Associate The Magic Crayons earn from qualifying purchases

Read Aloud of Witch on the Broom by Mr Tim Written by Julia Donaldson

Resources from The Magic Crayons
* Flashcards (including Ghost/scary card)
* Family Song by The Magic Crayons
Class size: whole class
Time: 5-7 minutes
How to play

Place family cards up front and (from Where is Daddy? chant) ask, "Where is Daddy?" Point to any card and pus for a "yes" or "no" response. Once they get it shuffle the cards and place them with pictures facing the wall. Slip in the ghost card. Once again ask, "Where is Daddy?" Reveal the card and let the kids tell you. When you reveal the ghost card, chase them into the corner.
Note: if you have some confident kids let them guess where Daddy is. Get them to say, "Here" and point to the card.

Class size: whole class
How to play

Introduce the idea by getting the children to guess what you are drawing, then let the children have a go. Give the child a card to look at as an idea, or let them use their imagination. First one to guess is the next one to draw.

Materials: PET Bottles
Class size: whole class
How to play

Use PET bottles. Have students collect these in the weeks prior.
Have pictures of witches, ghosts, monsters and ghouls that the children can colour and cut out and stick to the bottles to make them more "Halloweeney". Have 10 bottles all up and start the bowling. Stickers for prizes. Make sure you experiment with different bottles sizes and how easy it is for your students to knock them over. Also, start collecting empty bottles well in advance.

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If you, like ourselves, are teaching English as a foreign language many of your students will have little or no idea other than they get to eat as many sweets as they like. October 31st (Halloween), started as an Irish festival celebrating the end of summer and their calendar year.

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If you're looking for Halloween games that are perfect for all ages, you've come to the right place. With a list of over 45 hilarious Halloween party games that range from wrapping someone up like a mummy to tossing spiders into a spiderweb across the room, these are some of the most fun Halloween party games out there. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything via these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Best Halloween Games

Whether you're looking for Halloween games for a classroom party, virtual Halloween activities, or Halloween games for an adults only party, these are some of the best Halloween party games out there!

I've split them into sections for you. Click on the link below to jump right to that section!

Halloween Games Index

Halloween Games for Kids

While these games are all listed as Halloween party games for kids, don't be spooked - many of these (like truth or dare) work great for adults as well!

Halloween Truth or Scare

Print out these 100+ Halloween inspired clean truth or dare questions for a fun activity to play with kids through adults!

Halloween Scavenger Hunt

Print out this free Halloween scavenger hunt and set up clues around the house with a pumpkin full of treats or little prizes at the end!

Monster Match Halloween Bingo

Print out these free Monster Match Halloween bingo cards and see who can match up four monsters in a row first. This is the perfect Halloween game for classroom parties! Or if you don't want to go the monster route, here are some other fun bingo cards!

Roll A Jack O Lantern

See who can roll the face for a jack o lantern first in this fun free printable game! Get the free printable and instructions here.

Halloween Decorations Hunt

Go on a family hunt to find different types of Halloween decorations throughout your neighborhood with this Halloween neighborhood scavenger hunt!

Or just have kids search throughout your house for fun Halloween themed items with the other version included with that hunt!

Halloween Word Search

Print out this fun Halloween word search for some simple old-fashioned Halloween fun! Kids will love seeing how quickly they can find all the Halloween words.

Dress Up

This Halloween dress up game is really fun for kids but could also be played by teens or adults or entire families participating together! Get a group on a virtual call, announce a character or theme, and see who can come up with the best costume in minutes!

Quik Draw!

This is another super fun virtual Halloween game that would be perfect for any age but kids will really enjoy it! This Halloween pictionary type game will have players trying to guess who a character is based on clues then trying to draw them quickly and well!

Ghost Busters

Stack up ghost cups like these ones and have kids try to knock them down by shooting Nerf guns from 10 feet away. Get more fun ghost games from Organize Your Stuff Now.

Halloween Mystery Boxes

Spray paint Tupperware containers orange and put creepy food inside for kids to touch and guess what it actually is. Get a full list of great creepy food ideas and what they represent (e.g., cooked spaghetti = brains) from Christina's Adventures here.

Spider Races

Give kids a straw and a plastic spider and have them see who can get their spider across the finish line first. Full details and instructions from Still Playing School here.

Pumpkin Toss

Give kids candy pumpkins and have them toss them into plastic cauldrons to see who can get the most points. Full instructions from Playground Parkbench.

Poke a Pumpkin

Similar to this gratitude game, create a punch board that looks like a pumpkin with tricks and treats inside! Get full instructions on how to make a poke a pumpkin from Project Denneler here.

An Eyeball in a Haystack

Kids have to search for candy eyeballs in a stack of hay. Get full instructions and more harvest party ideas from Meaningful Mama here.

Halloween Games for Adults (and teens!)

Okay so I'm saying adults but really these are games that are good for either adults only or Halloween games that adults will enjoy - not just the kids - but kids and teens will likely be able to play them as well!

So really adult Halloween games + games for the entire family!

You could also just make any of these party games for adults Halloween themed!

Halloween Group Text Scavenger Hunt

Put together a group text, send out an item, and see who can find it first in this fun spin on a traditional Halloween scavenger hunt! Plus a fun group text scavenger hunt version where the host can actually play - like Halloween tag!

Halloween Treasure Hunt

Have families, groups, or neighbors hide treasure boxes full of treats for other players to find! Send clues or a treasure map to the group then head off on the best Halloween treasure hunt ever!

Ghoulish Recall

This Halloween memory game could technically be played by kids as well but it's better for teens or adults! Show images from this Halloween PowerPoint on a virtual call (or in person) and see who can answer questions about the images after studying them for a minute. You never know what's going to get asked or who's going to remember the tiniest little things!

Halloween Guess the Gross Food Game

Who can figure out what the real food is their eating first - not bat wings but beef jerky! A race to be the first to eat and name foods, this Halloween gross food game is great for adults, teens, and if you do the candy version - kids!

Halloween Name that Tune

See who can come up with the real name of these spooky songs in this free printable Halloween game.

Halloween Charades or Reverse Charades

Play traditional charades, reverse charades (one person guesses while the team acts out the word) or any of these other Halloween themed charades game ideas! And there's even a set of over 100 Halloween charades words you can print to play!

Full instructions on how to play Reverse Charades (and other fun adult party games here).

Would You Rather

Use these Halloween would you rather questions for some fun and interesting conversations or use this would you rather game idea for fun ways to make it more competitive!

Halloween Family Feud

A Halloween version of the popular game show Family Feud - teams compete to see if they can guess which answers are the most popular to win points. Get the printables and Family feud questions and answers here.

Halloween Movie Monster Match

See how many movies you can match to their original monsters! This one goes way back so most likely only adults are going to know the answers but you could totally play with teens too if they've seen a lot of movies.

Get the free printable Halloween movie game here!

Fear Factor

If you've ever seen the TV show, this is a way to bring that TV show to life in an adults-only way! Get creepy challenge ideas (like touching actual worms) and free printable invitations from Dating Divas here.

Witches Scattergories

A Halloween version of a classic favorite. Roll a letter and se what Halloween themed words you can come up with without matching others. Get the printable and more instructions from Let's Get Together here.

Werewolf

This is a personal favorite to play all year long but also works great for Halloween!

Everyone gets a card that tells them if they're a villager or a Werewolf. Everyone closes their eyes and the werewolves "kill" someone.

Then the entire group has to decide who they think did it and one by one try to figure out who the werewolves are. Get the game and more details here!

We played this both when I visited Pixar and during the Christopher Robin red carpet event, and I was killed the first round both times. I'm apparently too good at this game.

I Dare Halloween Scavenger Hunt

See who can earn the most points by completing these Halloween dares that are better for adults than kids. Get the printables and more instructions from Wild Truth Designs here.

Halloween Movie Trivia

Who really knows their Halloween movies? Find out with these free printable Halloween movie trivia cards from A Girl and a Glue Gun! There's both an adults version and a kids version if you want to play both!
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Minute to Win It Halloween Games

I'm a huge fan of minute to win it games - I've created over 200 for every party, season, and occasion! One of my favorite things to do for Halloween is a challenge race full of minute to win it games and any of the ones listed below or these fall party games would be perfect!

Don't know anything about minute to win it games? Start with my minute to win it games page.

Mummy Wrap

Supplies Needed: Toilet Paper

Play: Have two team members work together to wrap up one of the team members like a mummy in toilet paper. Whoever is "the mummy" must be completely wrapped (other than face).

You could use leftover toilet paper for one of these fun Halloween party ideas!

Choose the Candy

Supplies Needed: Large bag of candy and stickers

Play: Open a large bag of candy and put stickers on the bottom on some of the candy (at least equal to the number of teams you have).

One team member must pick a piece of candy, check for a sticker, and if there isn't a sticker eat the piece of candy. They must keep picking candy pieces until they've found a sticker.

Fear Factor (entire team)
Supplies:
Play: Put out a plate of food that the team must eat without using their hands. If you're doing an adult game, you can do things that might be tougher and grosser to eat (tofu, blue cheese, octopus, etc.).

For kids try a plate full of Halloween themed goodies (cup of dirt, gummy worms, gummy brains, peeled grapes for eyeballs, etc.).

You could also switch it up and do the same thing but make people actually name what they're eating in this guess the food game.

Costume Change
Supplies:
Play: Have a box full of costume/dress-up clothing and have require one team member to put on 10 (or whatever number) things to complete their costume.

Once they've dressed up, been approved, and undressed they can move to the next challenge.

Pumpkin Bowling
Supplies:
Play: Using either toilet paper with faces like ghosts or cans like this example, have a pumpkin and "pins" setup.

Team member must bowl a strike before they can move on. After they bowl, they must reset the pins (recommend having x's where pins go). If another team is also at the pumpkin bowling, they must take turns trying to bowl a strike.

Trick or Treat Balloon Pop
Supplies:
Play: Before the party put pieces of paper into balloons with treat names (Snickers, cupcakes, candy corn, etc.) and tricks (things they have to do like sing I'm a little teapot, pretend to fly around the room like a witch on a broom, etc.).

There should be a lot more tricks than treats (like 5 to 1) but make sure you have enough treats for the number of teams. Put all of the balloons (not blown up) in a bag.

Teams must pick a balloon from the bag, blow it up, and pop it. If they get a treat, they move on.

If they get a trick they must do the trick then another teammate picks another balloon and repeats until they get a treat.

Spooky Scramble

Create a Halloween word scramble or word search and have teams have to complete the scramble before moving on.

Tarantula Toss (1 person)

Supplies:

Play: Spread spiderwebs

(the white stretchy kind) in a space (doorway, corner of the room, etc.). Have players stand behind a line and toss little plastic spiders at the spiderweb until they can get three spiders stuck in the web.

Face the Cookie

Supplies: Halloween Oreos

Play: Players have to put a cookie on their forehead and using only their face muscles (no hands!), get the cookie from their forehead into their mouth.

If the cookie falls to the ground, they must either pick up the cookie from the ground or get a new cookie and start over.

Zombie Walk
Supplies:

Other Halloween obstacles

Play: Set up a short obstacle course (go around, over, and under things) and make the team member complete the obstacle course while walking like a zombie (or Frankenstein).

Pumpkin Pong
Supplies Needed: Setup:
This game is one of my favorites because it seems like it should be so easy. And it's not. Not at all.

For this game, tape a line on the floor where players will sit or stand. Place a small bowl or Halloween cup full of ping pong balls for each player along the line.

Then place plastic pumpkins about 20 feet away in a straight line, one plastic pumpkin per player.

And last but not least, fill the pumpkins half full with Cocoa Pebbles Cereal so that when people bounce their ping pong balls into the bucket, they actually stay in the bucket.
Play:
When you say go, players must bounce their ping pong balls from the line and try to bounce them into the plastic pumpkins at the end of the line.

You can either say the first one to get one in wins or you can give players one point for each ball they bounce in over the course of a minute.

Mouthful of Dirt Halloween Game
Supplies Needed: Setup:
To set up the game, fill each of the pumpkin buckets about 3/4 full with Cocoa Pebbles Cereal. It looks kind of like dirt, so it's perfect for this game.

Once each bucket is filled, add in a handful of gummy or plastic insects and shake the pumpkin to mix them into the "dirt," making sure they are not visible from the top of the bucket.

Place one large "dirt" filled pumpkin, one spoon, and one mini pumpkin next to each other on a table for each guest.
Play:
When you say go, players must put the spoon in their mouth and, using only the spoon in their mouth, dig in the dirt for bugs.

As they find a bug, they must transfer it using only the spoon from the large pumpkin into the mini pumpkin. Any bugs that are dropped between the large and mini pumpkins must be returned to the dirt to try again.

You can either say the first one to get one in wins or you can give players one point for each bug they can find over the course of a minute.

Trick or Eat Halloween Game
Supplies Needed:

24 mini plastic pumpkins

Cocoa Pebbles Cereal

List of silly things for people to do, written on individual pieces of paper (e.g., sing I'm a little teapot, spin in a circle 10 times, do five jumping jacks, etc.)

Setup:
To set up the game, place one piece of candy corn in the bottom of a handful of plastic pumpkins.

If you're having everyone play at the same time, make sure you have candy corn in at least the number of pumpkins equal to the number of people (i.e., 10 players = 10 candy corn pumpkins.

Cut up the list of tricks into individual tricks and place one into the pumpkins that don't have candy corn. Fill each mini pumpkin about half full with Cocoa Pebbles Cereal.
Play:
When you say go, players must pick a mini pumpkin and eat the Cocoa Pebbles Cereal to find the trick or treat inside.

If they find a candy corn, they're done and can stop playing. If they find a trick, they have to unroll the trick and do whatever it says (e.g., sing I'm a little teapot) before they pick another pumpkin.

You can either say the first one to find a treat pumpkin wins or you can give players one point for each treat pumpkin they find in the course of three minutes.

Dead Weight Halloween Games
Supplies Needed: Setup:
To setup the game, place a 1/4 cup of Cocoa Pebbles Cereal in each of the balloons then blow them up.

If you've never put things into balloons before, I recommend doing it with a friend. Have them hold the balloon opening up, while you pour the Cocoa Pebbles Cereal inside.
Play:
This is one of my favorite games to watch because people think it's going to be so easy.

The goal of the game is either to keep all three balloons up in the air for one minute or to keep the balloons up in the air longer than everyone else playing (however you decide to play it).

I do this a lot with my minute to win it games, but the fun twist for dead weight is that the Cocoa Pebbles Cereal in the balloons will make the balloons both fall down faster and fall in different directions than a normal balloon might.

I recommend having a large enough space for the entire group to do this at the same time or splitting your group up and timing them to see how long they can keep them up.

Halloween Carnival Games

Hosting a Halloween carnival? Try one of these fun Halloween games that are designed just for a carnival! They could also be played as regular Halloween party games too but are much more fun as carnival games! These fall festival games would be great as well!

Black Cat Bucket Toss

Materials Needed:
Preparation:

1. Set up three Halloween buckets in a straight line, equal distance from each other.

2. Tape a line a couple of feet from the first bucket and place the black cat by the bucket.

3. Fill each of the buckets with a different type of prize or Halloween candy (see list of prizes below for ideas).

Play:

Give each person three chances to toss the black cat into one of the buckets. If they make it into the bucket, they receive the prize that's in that particular bucket. If someone makes a black cat into each of the three buckets, they win a bigger prize!

For Younger Kids: Put the tape line right in front of the first bucket so they're really dropping the black cat into the bucket of their choosing and only allow them to choose one prize, not all.

Spider Ring Toss

Materials Needed:

Preparation:

1. Set up your Halloween tree(s) in a line.

2. Tape a line a couple of feet from the trees.

Play:

Give each person three spider rings toss at the Halloween tree. If the spider ring sticks on the spider web, they win a prize. If they get all three of the spiders on the web, they win a larger prize.

For Younger Kids: Put the tape line right in front of the tree so they're really dropping the spider rings onto the tree d only allow them to choose one prize, not the big one for all three rings. This makes the Halloween carnival games a bit easier for them!

Trick or Treat Tree

Place either a trick or a treat inside small plastic pumpkins and hang them on a tree. Let kids (or seniors) pick out a pumpkin from a tree and open up what's inside. If they get a treat, they eat the treat. If they get a trick, they do the trick! Get full instructions and printable tricks here.

Pumpkin Picking

Materials Needed:

Preparation:

1. Fill each pumpkin with a treat or prize.

2. Hide pumpkins around the room or yard.

Play:

When it's their turn, have the child go and find a pumpkin and open it for their surprise. If you have plenty of pumpkins, let them pick 2 or 3 pumpkins with surprises inside.

For Younger Kids: Don't hide them very hard.

Shoot the Skeleton

Hang fake skeletons on a board and let kids shoot them with slime to win a prize. Full DIY instructions and rules for the game from Brandy's Happy Home here.

Spider Launch

Using just popsicle sticks, plastic spiders, and plastic cups - see who can launch spiders into a web or a bucket. Full instructions and DIY directions for making the launchers from Frugal Fun 4 Boys here.

Halloween Games for Seniors

I get emails from my readers often asking about games for seniors, so I thought I'd put together a little section here with Halloween games that would work well for senior citizens! Any of the printable Halloween games (Scattergories, Movie Trivia, etc.) above would work as well!

Guess How Many Candy Corn?

Put a bunch of candy corn in a bowl and give a prize to whoever can guess the closest to the actual number. Get a free printable game sign from Better Homes and Gardens here.

Full Size Pumpkin Memory

This is a simplified version of pumpkin memory here but make it a little more challenging for seniors by adding in various types of Halloween characters such as bats, cats, and witches!

Guess & Feel Mystery Bags

See who can figure out what's inside these Halloween inspired mystery bags by just reaching in and touching the contents. Get great ideas for stuffing the bag from Edventures with Kids here.

Finish My Phrase

Put people in partners and see if they can guess what the other person will write for each fill in the blank. Get the printable from Adorably Allie here.

Other Halloween Party Games

If you don't want to make your own Halloween games, these ones are available to buy right now!

Halloween Prizes

Pick prizes for the Halloween games that make the most sense for the game you're playing. If it's a team game - go for a prize that a team can split. If it's an individual, go a little bigger! I've also got a great list of Halloween prizes here!
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Don't forget to pin these Halloween games!

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Over 45+ Awesome Halloween Games for All Ages

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If you're looking for Halloween games that are perfect for all ages, you've come to the right place. With a list of over 45 hilarious Halloween party games that range from wrapping someone up like a mummy to tossing spiders into a spiderweb across the room, these are some of the most fun Halloween party games out there.

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Halloween class party: 10 quickie activities for that extra 10 minutes

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Halloween class party: 10 quickie activities for that extra 10 minutes

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Planning class parties can be a real struggle, especially when you're rolling solo as the Room Parent.

But for years now, I've made it my goal to share as much as was humanly possible so that no one's stuck trying to figure out what to do with 30 kids eager for a good Halloween par-tay.
If you need a full-fledged Halloween class party, you can check out:
for the whole deal.

But if you just need a quickie 10-minute activity for the beginning or end of the party, then you're in the right place.

Here's the skinny. . .

Halloween Class Party Activities-Quickie Ideas for That Extra 10 Minutes:

In no particular order, and for a general elementary school aged classroom. Definitely adjust as necessary depending on the needs of the student body.

Place an object inside a box or a bag and allow each student to place his or her hand in to feel the item but not actually see the item. Encourage students to use all senses to make a guess about what object is hidden in the box.

This is an activity best done with a smaller group, but it can be played with a larger group, too. Have 2-4 parent volunteers walk around the class allowing students to feel objects.

Some items to consider:

a piece of fruit-banana, apple, orange, lemon

a sock or glove

a utensil-fork or spoon

craft items-feather, pipe cleaner, craft stick, cotton ball, etc

writing utensil-crayon, chalk, pencil, pen

a small toy-slinky, jacks, dice, domino, wii remote

In order to make this run smoothly, have kids write down numbers 1-5 on their paper and number each bag or box 1-5. That way, as they feel or touch each item, they write down what they think on their paper.

2. Memory Tray

Place 5-10 items on a tray in the front of the room. Make sure all students can see the items. Give them 30-60 seconds to study the items, and then cover the items with a sheet. Have the students write down all the items they remember. The goal is to remember all of the items!

3. Telephone

Also known as "Whisper Down the Alley" this game involves passing a message between an entire group of people. The first person whispers a phrase to the person next to him or her, then that message is passed from person to person until the last one to hear the message shares it out loud. The goal is to have the message pass through the entire group without error, but very seldom does that happen!

Some messages to consider:

Today I ate spaghetti for dinner.

Her grandma does the fox trot.

Three strikes and you're out.

His seashells cracked in the storefront.

The delivery person just brought me six big boxes.

4. Crossword or Word Search

You can't go wrong with some Halloween crosswords or word searches, so I always love to have a few of these printed out and ready to go for class parties.

Need a few? Got 'em right here for you: Halloween Crossword Puzzle | Halloween Word Search

5. Hangman . . . or. . . PumpkinMan

Man, I wish this game went by another name, but really, most kids know it as 'Hangman'.

For Halloween, play it as PumpkinMan and see what the kids think.

Put spaces for each letter of the 'mystery' word on the board and give each child a chance to guess the letters. If they choose a letter that's actually in the word, place it on the line.

If they guess a letter that's not in the word, then one by one, draw in a part of PumpkinMan's body: pumpkin head, eyes, nose, mouth, stem, body, arms, hands, legs, and feet.

Here are some words to use for the Halloween game:

6. 2 Truths and a Lie

You can play this a number of ways, but a quick way is this: three children sit in front of the class. Before they sit down, a parent volunteer decides that two children will say something true about themselves and the third will say something false about himself or herself.

The class then must guess which children are telling the truth and which child is telling a fib.

7. Hot Potato . . . or Hot Pumpkin

All you need for this one is music and a small pumpkin. Or if you're not brave enough to use a pumpkin, a small stuffed ghost or bat or cat will work!

Children sit in a circle on the floor. The music starts, and when it stops, the person holding the object is out! Because some children feel awful when called out like this, it can also be played with 2-3 objects being passed around while the music plays. This way, the game moves more quickly and 2-3 children are out at a time. No hard feelings!

8. Guess the Word

It's always fun when the teachers plays this game. Essentially, the teacher holds one card above his or her head, and on the card one word is written.

Children take turns giving the teacher a one-word clue to help him or her guess the word on the card.

This is a super game to play while students eat snacks because it gets their brains moving and keeps them engaged while they down some sweet treats!
You can download our Halloween Guess the Word Cards here: Halloween Guess the Word just by signing up in the box above! Really-it's that easy!
9. Guess Who?

Each child writes down five facts about himself or herself. While the kids are eating or finishing snacks, the parent volunteer reads the five facts to the class.

The students do their best to guess who is being described, and the person who guesses correctly wins!

10. Freeze Dance

Kids. Love. Freeze dance. They really, really do.

For the last 10 minutes of the party, let the kids burn that last bit of steam, costumes and all!

Turn on Wee Sing Halloween Songs (believe me, all kids love these silly Halloween tunes!).

Or, if you don't have time and need the tunes now, check out these YouTube videos:

Need some more? Got a whole other party planned for you here:

(No joke. . . you can thank me later! Just click the picture!)

Want a few more fun halloween party ideas? fyi: Affiliate links are used in this post, which means that every time you purchase something using one of our links, we get at teeny, tiny percentage of the sale. so. . . thank you for using them, friends!

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halloween class party: 10 quickie activities for that extra 10 minutes

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Planning class parties can be a real struggle, especially when you're rolling solo as the Room Parent. But for years now, I've made it my goal to share as much as was humanly possible so that no one's stuck trying to figure out what to do with 30 kids eager for a good Halloween par-tay.

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43 Halloween Activities for Your Haunted Classroom

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43 Halloween Activities for Your Haunted Classroom

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43 Halloween Activities for Your Haunted Classroom - Teaching Expertise

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With October coming to a close we all know what your little goons and goblins are thinking about. From eating candy and playing dress-up, to spooky songs and

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55 Frightfully Fun Halloween Activities, Crafts, and Games for the Classroom

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55 Frightfully Fun Halloween Activities, Crafts, and Games for the Classroom

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66 Frightfully Fun Halloween Activities, Crafts, and Games Kids Love

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Celebrate the spooky season without sacrificing the learning!

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Halloween Lesson Plan:

Free ESL KidStuff Halloween Lesson plan: Check out our wonderful Halloween lesson plan which is tailor-made to use in your kids ESL classroom. The lesson plan includes downloadable flashcards, worksheets, songs and a classroom reader.

Halloween Games & Activities:

Candy Jar Guess. Put Halloween candies in a jar and get the students to guess how many there are and share them out afterwards. Special Halloween shaped candy (especially eye balls!) would be really great. (TP: V: large numbers.).

Costume Party. Something all kids love to do - dress up in a Halloween costume. Prizes can be given for best, scariest, funniest, etc. (TP: None).

Guess the Pumpkin Weight. After carving the pumpkin have students try and guess the weight - use scales. Students can weigh other things first to help their guess. (TP: V: weigh, heavy, light, numbers. F: weighing things).

Halloween Cards. Supplies: card, colored pens/pencils, glitter. Students make cards for other students in the class. (TP: V: Halloween card. F: writing messages).

Halloween Concentration. Play the concentration card game using Halloween flashcards. (TP: V: Halloween vocab).
Halloween Flashcards
Halloween Walk. Form line on one side of room. Cross room in following ways: 1). Fly like a bat; 2) gallop like a cowboy on a horse; 3) hop like a bunny; 4) roll like a pumpkin; 5) dance like a princess; 6) creep like a cat; 7) walk like a skeleton; 8) float like a ghost; 9) stomp like a monster. (TP: V: Action verbs with Halloween vocab).

Handprint Ghosts. Have the children paint their hands white and press onto black construction paper. When they dry have the children turn them upside down and add faces. (TP: V: ghost, paint, handprint, face vocab).

Haunted House Classroom. You can have a lot of fun turning your classroom into a Haunted House. Rearrange the furniture, turn out all the lights, hide volunteers in strategic places around the room to scare your students, then lead the students in (one or two at a time) and listen to the screams! Eerie music is essential, as is a very dark room. If you can get some glow-in-the-dark stars and arrows to illuminate a path around the room, and to mark the edges of tables, chairs, and any other dangerous areas. (TP: None).

I Went Into a Haunted House. Students sit in a circle. Student A says "I went into the haunted house and saw a witch". Student B continues: "I went into the haunted house and saw a witch and a black cat". Continue around the circle. (TP: V: various Halloween vocab).

Making Masks. Making masks is always fun and is also a good review for parts of the face, colors and names of characters (Dracula, monster, witch, etc.). Simple masks can be made with paper plates and string. A competition can be held and prizes given for the best, the funniest, the scariest, the most colorful, the biggest. (TP: V: Face vocab, colors, Halloween characters).

Melt the Witch Game. Materials: A moveable chalkboard, colored chalk, sponges, bucket of water. Directions: Draw a witch's head, or whole body on the chalkboard. Fill the bucket with water and sponges. Have children stand close enough to the board to be able to hit it accurately with a wet sponge. Place water bucket and sponges near this spot. Tell the children to take turns throwing wet sponges at the witch to try and "melt" her away. As the witch becomes wet and water drips down the board, it will appear as if she is melting. Be sure the children are squeezing out to the sponges before throwing. (TP: V: throw, witch, melt, bucket, sponge).

Mummy Dress up. Let the children wrap each other in toilet paper and pretend to be a mummy. (TP: V: Mummy, toilet paper, wrap up/around).
Halloween Worksheets
Paper Pumpkin. Have the students stuff plain brown paper lunch bags with crumpled newspaper, then have them paint the bags with orange paint, and then tie the bags with thick green yarn to make them into a pumpkin decorations. (TP: V: Face vocab, pumpkin, jack-o-lantern).

Pass the Pumpkin. Students sit in a circle. Provide a plastic pumpkin for children to pass while the teacher beats on a drum or plays some music. Children pass the pumpkin to the tempo of the music. Alternate between fast and slow. When the music stops the child who has the pumpkin stands and takes a bow. Continue. (TP: None).

Pass the Vampire Bat. Supplies: one straw for each child / bat shapes cut out of tissue paper. How To Play: Divide the class into 2 teams and line up each team. Sts pass the tissue bats down the line, teammate to teammate, by inhaling and exhaling on the straw to hang onto or release the ornament. No hands! The first team to successfully pass the bats up and down the line wins! (TP: V: bat, straw, line up, pass. AA: Before the game you can get the students to make the tissue bats).

Pin The Tail on the Black Cat. This is a take on 'pin the tail on the donkey'. Put a picture of a tailless-less black cat on the wall, blindfold the students, spin them around and see if they can pin the tail in the right place. The nearest wins a prize/points. (TP: V: black cat, tail, pin, blindfold, spin.).

Play Doh. make jack-o-lanterns, witches, other characters, etc. (TP: V: various Halloween objects).

Scary Stories. With more advanced students, have students tell their scariest story. (TP: F: Story Telling. AA: Have the students write their story and draw accompanying pictures).

Songs. 10 Little Witches: sung to tune of '10 Little Elephants' ( click here for song sheet). (TP: V: 1-10, little, witches). I'm a bat: sung to the tune of 'You Are My Sunshine' ( click here for song sheet). (TP: V: bat, nocturnal, fly, night).

Spelling Banner. Prepare two banners that say whatever you want them to say, i.e. Happy Halloween, Trick or Treat, etc. Also prepare a set of letters for the same words cut out in two different colors hidden randomly around the room. Divide the class into 2 teams with two captains--the captains sit and wait for their teammates to bring the letters for their banner. If a student is on the "red" team and sees a letter for the "green" team he/she just leaves it alone. The first team to cover their banner letters wins. (TP: F: spelling).

Spooky Finger. Only do this with older kids as it is quite scary! Make a small hole in the bottom of a small cottage cheese container - any similar container will do - and put some cotton in the bottom. Stick your middle finger through the hole and bend it inward. Let the rest of your fingers grip the container naturally. Arrange the cotton around your finger to hide the hole. Cover the container and ask one of your unsuspecting students to remove the lid. When s/he does, move the finger up and down. (TP: AA: let your students make a finger box).

Trick or Treat Game. Place slips of paper in a brown lunch bag. On each write down a different "trick" such as "hop on one foot" or "close your eyes and touch your nose." Have each child in turn, say, "trick or treat" and draw a paper from the bag. When s/he performs the "trick" say "treat" and give him/her either a Halloween sticker or a candy. (TP: V: action verbs, trick, treat).

What's in the Box? Paint a cardboard box black with a hole cut out to put hands into. All sorts of things can be placed in the box and the students have to put their hands in the box and try to guess what the object is. Great fun! (TP: None).

Who am I Ghost? Blindfold one student. The other students stand in circle around the blindfolded student. Spin the student around and then stop him/her facing another student. S says "Whooooooo (like a ghost). Who am I?". The blindfolded S must guess who that student is and call out his/her name. (TP: F: asking people to identify themselves).

Word Find. Supplies: timer, paper, pens. Divide students into teams. Take a Halloween related word such as: Dracula, Frankenstein, Jack-O-Lantern, etc. and find as many words as possible using the letters of that word. Give a time limit (e.g. 2 mins). The team with the most words wins! Example: Frankenstein: (in, ran, ant, nest, tin...). (TP: F: Spelling).

Halloween Links:

Here is a list of great links to Halloween flashcards, worksheets, crafts and more:

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Lots of games and activities you can use when teaching your Halloween lessons.

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15 DIY HALLOWEEN PARTY IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM

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15 DIY HALLOWEEN PARTY IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM

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Even though Halloween is my second most favorite holiday (next to the Fourth of July), our classroom Halloween party is by far my most favorite classroom party of the year. Our DIY classroom Halloween party lasts approximately 1.5 hours, with the majority of our party taking place as center rounds. I typically set up five or six Halloween centers the night before the party. Some of these DIY classroom Halloween party centers may contain two or three Halloween games, depending on the quickness of the game. Each Halloween station lasts about 15 minutes. During this time, we make Halloween crafts, play Halloween games, and eat lots of yummy Halloween treats!
This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Any purchases made through one of our links earns us a small commission, at no extra cost to you, which helps to support the blog so we can continue sharing content like this with you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. All creative ideas and opinions expressed are purely my own. Read our full privacy policy and disclosure for more information.
No Prep Classroom Halloween Party Ideas

Before I dive into the DIY classroom Halloween party ideas, I thought I might make life even easier by sharing these no prep Halloween activities and games.

DIY Classroom Halloween Party Ideas: Games

Here's a rundown of all of our DIY Halloween games and activities...many of which I have been using year after year!

1. Pumpkin Bowling

These pumpkin bowling pins were made from 2 liter bottles. I simply wrapped the bottle with orange construction paper and added a pumpkin face. You could also turn frosted, plastic cups into ghosts, or even paper towel rolls into ghosts by drawing a ghostly face with a black marker.

2. Cauldron Pumpkin Toss

I grabbed this large cauldron and these plastic pumpkins from the dollar store. You'll want to line the bottom of the cauldron with black foam to prevent the plastic pumpkins from bouncing out. Each student tries to toss in the six pumpkins. The person who makes the most "baskets" wins!

3. Diggin' for Witch's Fingers

This DIY classroom Halloween party activity is one of my favorites! Before our classroom Halloween party, I bury eyeballs, spiders, cockroaches, and witch fingers in the sand. Originally, one of the witch fingers was spray painted black. If you have a sand table in your classroom, you'll be all set. Otherwise, you can dump some play sand in a large, shallow, plastic container. Each student will need to be blindfolded before diggin' for the witch's fingers. The student who finds the black finger first wins!

After each student digs, we also graph the item he/she found.

4. Pin The Wart on The Witch

I found this cute witch printable at Hershey's. We use sticky tack for the warts. Simply blindfold each student and see who sticks the wart on the witch's nose.

5. Fishing for Pumpkins

This is an oldie but a goodie, and so easy to prep! Just cut out some pumpkins from orange card stock or poster board, add a paperclip to each pumpkin, and use a magnetic fishing pole. For the last five or six years, the kiddos used a DIY magnetic fishing pole that I created using the top insert from an old fishing rod, fishing string and a magnet. You could also use a wooden dowel to make your fishing rod, or grab these magnetic fishing poles from Lakeshore Learning.

6. Pass The Pumpkin

This DIY classroom Halloween party game can be played with a small group of children or with the whole class. I usually play with my entire class. We sit around the outside of the rug, and I play kid-friendly Halloween songs as the students pass the pumpkin around the circle. When I stop the music, the student holding the pumpkin goes to the middle (similar to Hot Potato). I've also played this game with a stuffed ghost. We just called it "Pass the Ghost." Really, any Halloween object will work.

7. Spider Web Toss

These felt spider webs and giant, plastic spiders were found at the Dollar Tree. I simply hot glued a point value to the middle of each web (think... target). The student stands back and toss the spiders. After tossing all of the spiders, add up the points. The student with the most points wins!

If you don't want to spread the webs out, you could also line them up in a straight line and assign point values from least to greatest.

8. Eyeball / Spider Race

For this game, I have two students race eyeballs across the table for one minute. I've also played this game using plastic spiders. Our tables are about four feet long. One student will stand on each side of the table. Using a straw, each student blows the eyeball / spider across the table and into a basket hanging at the opposite end. You could even draw a finish line rather than attaching baskets to the table. The student who gets the most eyeballs to the opposite end of the table wins!

9. Mr. Bones Relay

I found this printable skeleton at FamilyFun.com. I searched and searched, but couldn't find the link to this exact skeleton. You could definitely use these skeletons here and here and here.

For this DIY classroom Halloween party game, I printed four sets, two on paper and two on white card stock. Glue the paper skeleton onto a large strip of black construction paper (glue two 12×18 pieces together) or bulletin board paper. You'll want to make two of these mats and laminate them for durability. You'll also want to laminate the card stock pieces. I also traced the outline of each piece onto thick, white foam. I cut out the foam pieces and glued them to the bottom of the appropriate bone. This helped make the game pieces a little more durable and less slippery on the skeleton mats.

I like to divide my kiddos into two teams. I place the bone pieces into two baskets at the opposite end of the skeleton mat. The first person on each team grabs a bone, runs to the mat, and places the bone in the appropriate place. The first team to correctly assemble Mr. Bones wins!

10. Halloween Party Bucket Toss

Some years, I use these festive buckets in place of the "Caludron Pumpkin Toss" game. You can toss virtually anything into the buckets... giant spiders, pumpkins, beanbag ghosts. I found these sand buckets at Michael's, and added the numbers using my Silhoutte Cameo.

DIY Classroom Halloween Party Ideas: Crafts

11. Q-Tip Skeletons

One of my teammates gave me this cute idea a few years ago. I print and cut out each of my students' faces ahead of time. A black background looks the best. And, this might be the only time I've ever used any of my school pictures! 😉

12. Popsicle Stick Frankenstein

These Popsicle stick Frankensteins always turn out so adorable. You can use regular sized Popsicle sticks, but I like to use the mini ones from Lowe Cornell. I have a parent prep the squares ahead of time. I just hot glue the sticks to two Popsicle sticks running horizontally across the back. The kiddos will paint the front using green tempra paint or green acrylic paint. The hair and bolts are fun foam from Michael's. Glue on some googley eyes, and then draw a mouth and stitch mark with a black permanent marker. I've found that Aileen's tacky glue works the best. Sometimes, we add magnets to the back so that the parents can hang ol' Frank on the fridge.

Another super easy, low prep Halloween craft I love to use during our Halloween party is this masking tape mummy craft which is great for fine motor skills.

DIY Classroom Halloween Party Ideas: Snacks

13. Monster Cookies

At one of our DIY classroom Halloween party stations, the students decorate pumpkin cookie cutouts to look like monsters. We use candy corn, M & M's, chocolate chips, marshmallows, etc. to make the faces. I show the students this picture from an old Halloween activity book to help some of my reluctant kiddos think of an idea. Of course, we have to eat our monster cookies!

I wish I had a picture of the decorated monster cookies to show you!

14. Halloween Party Treats

Here are just a few ideas for Halloween treats that would be festive and fun:

15. Vampire Candy Box

And last, but certainly not least! Of course, the kiddos' most favorite part of the party is passing out Halloween candy or treats to their classmates. The passing out of the candy occurs at one of the stations... the bowling station to be exact. Prior to the party, we make these fun vampire shoe boxes. Simply wrap a shoe box with black paper (trust me... you may want to enlist in a few parent volunteers to do the wrapping), cut out the cape from 9×12 paper, use a circle for the head, draw a vampire face, add some foam vampire fangs, and assemble! Seriously, my most favorite Halloween craft!

More Halloween Party Ideas

Don't forget to check out these no prep classroom Halloween Party ideas!

For more simple Halloween crafts for kids head to this blog!

These 22 Room on the Broom activities, crafts, and centers are great for the whole month of October!

You might also like these pumpkin activities which are also great for the month of October or even November!

Here's to a successful classroom Halloween party! I promise your kiddos will think these DIY classroom Halloween party ideas are spooktacular!

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15 DIY Halloween Party Ideas for the Classroom

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Even though Halloween is my second most favorite holiday (next to the Fourth of July), our classroom Halloween party is by far my most favorite classroom party of the year. Our DIY classroom Hallow...

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HISTORY OF HALLOWEE - WORLD HISTORY ENCYCLOPEDIA

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HISTORY OF HALLOWEE - WORLD HISTORY ENCYCLOPEDIA

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Halloween is among the oldest traditions in the world as it touches on an essential element of the human condition: the relationship between the living and the dead. The observance evolved from ancient rituals marking the transition from summer to winter, thereby associating it with transformation, which is still a central theme of the holiday.

Every recorded civilization has created some form of ritual observance focused on what happens to people when they die, where they go, and how the living should best honor those who have passed or respond to the dead who seem unwilling or unable to move on. Countries around the world today celebrate Halloween in one form or another, from Mexico's Day of the Dead to China's Tomb Sweeping Day. The modern-day observance of Halloween in countries such as the United States and Canada - where this tradition is most popular - share in this ancient tradition, even though some aspects of the holiday are relatively recent developments and can be traced back to the Celtic festival of Samhain.

Christian groups through the years have routinely attempted to demonize and denigrate the observance, in part by repeating the erroneous claim that Sam Hain was the Celtic god of the dead and Halloween his feast. This error comes from the 18th-century British engineer Charles Vallancey, who wrote on the Samhain festival with a poor understanding of the culture and language, and has been repeated uncritically since. It was actually the Church itself, however, which preserved the Samhain tradition in the West by Christianizing it in the 9th century, setting the course for a pagan Northern European religious tradition's transformation into a worldwide secular holiday which has become the most popular - and commercially lucrative - of the year, second only to Christmas.

Samhain

Halloween traditions in the West date back thousands of years to the festival of Samhain (pronounced 'Soo-when', 'So-ween' or 'Saw-wen'), the Celtic New Year's festival. The name means "summer's end", and the festival marked the close of the harvest season and the coming of winter. The Celts believed that the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was thinnest at this time and so the dead could return and walk where they had before. Further, those who had died in the past year and who, for one reason or another, had not yet moved on, could do so at this time and might interact with the living in saying good-bye.

The observance of Samhain included stocking up supplies for the winter, slaughtering cattle, and disposing of the bones in "bone fires".

Very little is known of the rituals of ancient Samhain because the Church Christianized it - as with many pagan festivals - and what information is available comes from Irish monks who recorded the pre-Christian history of their people as well as other Christian scribes denigrating pagan rites. It seems, however, that the observance included stocking up supplies for the winter, slaughtering cattle, and disposing of the bones in "bone fires" which, in time, came to be known as bonfires. There were gatherings of communities for feasting and drinking while this was going on, but there was also the awareness of the "thin time" of the year and the possibility of otherworldly visitors showing up at the party.

Departed loved ones were expected - and welcomed - and the practice of setting out favorite foods for the dead may have originated as early as 2,000 years ago (though this is unclear), but many other kinds of spirits - some which never had human form - could also appear. Elves, fairies, the "wee folk", sprites, and dark energies were just as likely to pay a visit as those one longed to see again one last time.

Further, there was a very good chance that the spirit of a person one may have wronged would also make an appearance. In order to deceive the spirits, people darkened their faces with ashes from the bonfires (a practice later known as "guising"), and this developed into wearing masks. A living person would recognize the spirit of a loved one and could then reveal themselves but otherwise remain safe from the unwanted attention of darker forces.

All Hallows' Eve

How long ago these rituals were included in the observance of Samhain is unknown, but some form of them were probably in place by the time Christianity came to Ireland in the 5th century. The hill of Tlachtga (Hill of the Ward) in County Meath was the site of the bonfire lighted on or around 31 October signaling the beginning of Samhain festivities when it was answered by the much more prominent fire from the Neolithic site of the Hill of Tara across from it. Archaeologists from University College Dublin have dated the excavated earthworks to 200 CE but note these are only the latest developments at a site first used for ceremonial fires over 2,000 years ago.

The hill is named for the druidess Tlachtga, daughter of the powerful druid Mug Ruith who traveled the world learning his craft. She was raped by the three sons of Simon Magus, infamous for his confrontation with St. Peter in the biblical Book of Acts 8:9-24, and gave birth to triplets on the hill that bears her name before dying there. The inclusion of a biblical villain in her story, obviously, places the legend in the Christian era and aligns Tlachtga with St. Peter in so far as they shared a common adversary. Scholars believe that the Tlachtga story, like so many Celtic legends, was Christianized after the coming of St. Patrick to Ireland and her rape by the sons of Simon Magus was added to a pre-existing account.

The Christianization of pagan symbols, temples, festivals, legends, and religious iconography is well established and applies to the Samhain festival as well as many others. Pope Boniface IV had set 13 May as All Saint's Day (All Hallows' Day), a feast day to celebrate those saints who did not have a day of their own, in the 7th century when he consecrated the great pagan temple of the Pantheon in Rome to Saint Mary and Christian martyrs, but in the 8th century, Pope Gregory III moved the date of the feast to 1 November. The motivation for this move is still debated. Some scholars claim it was done intentionally to Christianize Samhain by turning it into All Hallows' Eve, which is most likely true as the move follows an established Christian paradigm of "redeeming" all things pagan in an effort to ease the conversion process of a given population.

Prior to Christianization, 13 May had been the last day of the Roman festival of Lemuria (which ran 9, 11, 13 May), dedicated to placating the angry or restless dead. The festival developed from a pair of observances held earlier in the year, Parentalia - which honored the spirits of one's ancestors (13-21 February) - and Feralia - which honored the spirits of loved ones lost (21 February). On Feralia, the living were obligated to remember and visit the graves of the dead and leave them gifts in the form of grains, salt, bread soaked in wine, and wreaths, accompanied by violet petals.

Other Influences on Development

As it was with Parentalia, Feralia, Lemuria, and many others, so it was with Samhain. Previously, the Samhain festival was associated with all those who had gone on before, with the earth, and the change of the year; this transformation was marked by celebration and communal activities. Once the festival was Christianized, All Hallows' Eve became a night of vigil, prayer, and fasting in preparation for the next day when the saints were honored at a far tamer celebration.

The old ways had not died out, however, and bonfires were still lighted - only now in honor of Christian heroes - and the turning of the seasons was still observed - only now to the glory of Christ. Many of the rituals which accompanied this new incarnation of the festival are unknown but by the 16th century, the practice of "souling" had become integral. The poor of the town or city would go about knocking on doors asking for a soul-cake (also known as a soul-mass-cake) in return for prayers.

This practice is thought to have begun in response to the belief in purgatory where it was thought a soul lingered in torment unless elevated by prayer and, most often, money paid to the Church. After the Protestant Reformation, "souling" continued in Britain, only now the Protestant young and poor offered to pray for the people of the house and their loved ones instead of those in purgatory while Catholics continued the older tradition.

In the 17th century, Guy Fawkes Day added a new component to the development of Halloween. On 5 November 1605, a group of dissident Catholics tried to assassinate the protestant King James I of Britain in an attempt known as the Gunpowder Plot. The attempt failed and one of the group, Guy Fawkes, was caught with the explosives beneath the House of Lords and, although he had co-conspirators, his name attached itself famously to the plot.

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Guy Fawkes Day was celebrated by the Protestants of Britain as a triumph over "popery", and 5 November became an occasion for anti-Catholic sermons and vandalism of Catholic homes and businesses even though, officially, the government claimed it was a celebration of Providence sparing the king. On Guy Fawkes night, bonfires were lit and unpopular figures - most often the Pope - were hanged in effigy while people drank, feasted, and set off fireworks. Children and the poor would go house to house, often wearing masks, pushing an effigy of Guy Fawkes in a wheelbarrow and begging for money or treats while threatening vandalism if they were refused.

Coming to North America

When the British came to North America, they brought these traditions with them. The Puritans of New England, who refused to observe any holidays which might be associated with pagan beliefs - including Christmas and Easter - kept the observance of Guy Fawkes Day on 5 November as a reminder of their supposed moral superiority to Catholics. Guy Fawkes continued to be celebrated up until the American Revolution of 1775-1783.

The rituals of Samhain arrived in the United States less than a century later with the displacement of the Irish in 1845-1849, during the potato famine. The Irish, largely Catholic, continued to observe All Hallows' Eve, All Saint's Day, and All Soul's Day along with the practice of "souling" but these festivals by now were infused with folk traditions such as the jack-o'-lantern.

Further Developments

The jack-o'-lantern is associated with the Irish folktale of Stingy Jack, a clever drunk and con man who fooled the devil into banning him from hell but, because of his sinful life, could not enter heaven. After his death, he roamed the world carrying a small lantern made of a turnip with a red-hot ember from hell inside to light his way. Scholars believe this legend evolved from sightings of will-o'-the-wisp, swamp and marsh gasses which glowed in the night. On All Hallows' Eve, the Irish hollowed out turnips and carved them with faces, placing a candle inside, so that as they went about "souling" on the night when the veil between life and death was thinnest, they would be protected from spirits like Stingy Jack.

The basics of Halloween were now in place with people going from house to house asking for sweet treats in the form of the soul-cakes and carrying jack-o'-lanterns. Shortly after their arrival in the United States, the Irish traded the turnip for the pumpkin as their lantern of choice as it was much easier to carve. Guy Fawkes Day was no longer celebrated in the United States but aspects of it attached themselves to the Catholic holidays of October, especially vandalism, only now it was indiscriminate: anyone's home or business could be vandalized around 31 October.

In the village of Hiawatha, Kansas, the morning after Halloween in 1912, a woman named Elizabeth Krebs grew tired of having her garden - and entire town - vandalized once a year by marauding children wearing masks and, initially using her own resources, organized a party in 1913 for the young people where, she hoped, she would tire them out enough that they would have no energy for destruction.

She underestimated their determination, however, and the community was vandalized as usual. In 1914, she involved the entire town, brought in a band, held a costume contest, and put on a parade - and her plan worked. People of all ages enjoyed a festive, rather than disruptive, Halloween. News of her success traveled outside of Kansas to other towns and cities which adopted the same course and established Halloween parties which included costume contests, parades, music, food, dancing, and sweet treats accompanied by frightening decorations of ghosts and goblins.

The familiar tradition of the present day dates to the 1950s CE and has steadily become popular in other countries.

Although Mrs. Krebs is sometimes cited as the "mother of modern Halloween", this is not entirely true as she did not institute the practice of going door-to-door asking for treats. This tradition was a few centuries old by the time she put on her first event. Mrs. Krebs' original vision definitely did impact how people in America celebrate Halloween, however, and the Halloween Frolic of Hiawatha, Kansas, continues to be observed annually along with the many similar festivals it inspired.

The party as a distraction from destruction, however, did not catch on nationwide and, by the 1920s, so-called "mischief night" had become a serious problem, not only in the United States but also in Canada. How, exactly, the practice of destroying people's property on the night of 31 October morphed into going door-to-door asking for candy in return for leaving a home in one piece is unclear, but it was already established in Canada by 1927 when a newspaper article from Blackie, Alberta, Canada featured a story about children going door-to-door in this way and is the first known appearance in print of the phrase "trick or treat". The children were given the candy and the homeowner was left in peace.

This tradition continued in North America throughout the 1930s, was interrupted by World War II owing to the sugar ration which dramatically cut the candy supply, and reemerged in the late 1940s. The familiar tradition of the present day dates to the 1950s and has steadily become popular in other countries, following the same basic paradigm. Today, Halloween is not generally associated with any particular religion or tradition and is commonly viewed as a secular community holiday, primarily focused on the young, and a boon for businesses offering candy and decorations as well as the entertainment industry which releases films, TV specials, and books on paranormal themes.

Central Theme

For many Neo-Pagans and Wiccans in the modern day, however, the holiday continues to be observed - as closely as possible - as it was in the ancient past. The central theme of Samhain was transformation. The year turned from the light days to the dark, the dead crossed over into the land of the living or moved on to the other side, people disguised themselves as other entities, and entities might appear as people, animals were slaughtered and turned into food while grains, fruits, and vegetables were similarly transformed for winter storage and wood and bone went up in the flames of the bonfires as smoke.

Transformation is still central to the observance of Halloween. The mask and costume transforms the wearer from their everyday life to another persona. For a night, one becomes Darth Vader or a zombie or the Great Pumpkin. The best-known, and most popular, costumes also touch on transformation. The werewolf is a human who changes into an animal; the vampire can vanish into smoke or become a bat; ghosts were once people.

In pre-Christian Ireland, the goddess most closely associated with Samhain was the Morrigan, the deity associated with war and fate who led her people, the Tuatha de Danaan, to freedom in a battle against the Fomorians. The Morrigan, in every one of her stories, is a transformative figure and in the story from the Irish epic Cath Maige Tuired she changes the fate of her people, making them their own masters instead of slaves of other forces.

The transformation was often frightening but could also be inspiring. The werewolf figure developed in response to fear of animal attacks and the vampire, perhaps, as a response to the fear of the angry dead who returned to torment the living. In these cases, however - and many others - it was within human power to kill the monster and so their legends can empower people to recognize their own strengths in the face of perilous circumstances.

The masks of Halloween and the present-day traditions represent this same theme and touch on the most basic aspects of the human condition and the ancient observance of Samhain. The costumes people wear represent fears and hopes in the same way the people centuries ago wore their masks to deter unwelcome spirits and experiences while anticipating joyful reunions with loved ones.

Many of the costumes represent the universal fear of death and the unknown which, for a night anyway, is mastered as one becomes that which one would normally dread and, transformed, neutralizes that fear. At its most basic level, Halloween is - or can be - a triumph of hope over fear, which is most likely what it also meant to the ancient Celts at Samhain thousands of years ago.

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Halloween is among the oldest traditions in the world as it touches on an essential element of the human condition: the relationship between the living and the dead. The observance evolved from ancient...

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Halloween, a holiday observed on October 31 and noted for its pagan and religious roots and secular traditions. In much of Europe and most of North America, observance of Halloween is largely nonreligious, celebrated with parties, spooky costumes, jack-o'-lanterns, pumpkin carvings, and the giving of candy. But the holiday also marks the beginning of Allhallotide, a three-day Christian triduum dedicated to remembering the dead that begins with Halloween (October 31) and is followed by All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2).

Halloween had its origins in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. On the day corresponding to November 1 on contemporary calendars, the new year was believed to begin. That date was considered the beginning of the winter period, the date on which the herds were returned from pasture and land tenures were renewed. During the Samhain festival the souls of those who had died were believed to return to visit their homes, and those who had died during the year were believed to journey to the otherworld. People set bonfires on hilltops for relighting their hearth fires for the winter and to frighten away evil spirits, and they sometimes wore masks and other disguises to avoid being recognized by the ghosts thought to be present. It was in those ways that beings such as witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and demons came to be associated with the day. The period was also thought to be favourable for divination on matters such as marriage, health, and death. When the Romans conquered the Celts in the 1st century ce, they added their own festivals of Feralia, commemorating the passing of the dead, and of Pomona, the goddess of the harvest.

In the 7th century ce Pope Boniface IV established All Saints' Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century, perhaps in an effort to supplant the pagan holiday with a Christian observance, it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints' Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve, from which the word "Halloween" evolved. By the end of the Middle Ages, the secular and the sacred days had merged. The Reformation essentially put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain especially Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. Along with other festivities, the celebration of Halloween was largely forbidden among the early American colonists, although in the 1800s there developed festivals that marked the harvest and incorporated elements of Halloween. When large numbers of immigrants, including the Irish, went to the United States beginning in the mid 19th century, they took their Halloween customs with them, and in the 20th century Halloween became one of the principal U.S. holidays, particularly among children.

As a secular holiday, Halloween has come to be associated with a number of activities. One is the practice of pulling usually harmless pranks. Celebrants wear masks and costumes for parties and for trick-or-treating, thought to have derived from the British practice of allowing the poor to beg for food, called "soul cakes." Trick-or-treaters go from house to house with the threat that they will pull a trick if they do not receive a treat, usually candy. Halloween parties often include games such as bobbing for apples, perhaps derived from the Roman celebration of Pomona. Along with skeletons and black cats, the holiday has incorporated scary beings such as ghosts, witches, and vampires into the celebration. Another symbol is the jack-o'-lantern, a hollowed-out pumpkin, originally a turnip, carved into a demonic face and lit with a candle inside. Since the mid-20th century the United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF) has attempted to make the collection of money for its programs a part of Halloween.

See also the Britannica Classic article on Halloween, which appeared in the 13th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

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Halloween | Definition, Origin, History, & Facts

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Halloween, a holiday observed on October 31, the evening before All Saints' Day. The celebration marks the day before the Western Christian feast of All Saints and initiates the season of Allhallowtide. In much of Europe and most of North America, observance of Halloween is largely nonreligious.

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Carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and wearing scary costumes are some of the time-honored traditions of Halloween. Yet, the Halloween holiday has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced "SAH-win"), a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor saints. Soon after, All Saints Day came to incorporate some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows Eve , and later, Halloween. Here is a look at the origins of some of the classic Halloween traditions we know today.
Carving Jack-o'-Lanterns
The tradition of carving Jack-o'-Lanterns originated in Ireland using turnips instead of pumpkins. It is allegedly based on a legend about a man named Stingy Jack who repeatedly trapped the Devil and only let him go on the condition that Jack would never go to Hell. But when Jack died, he learned that Heaven did not want his soul either, so he was forced to wander the Earth as a ghost for eternity. The Devil gave Jack a burning lump of coal in a carved-out turnip to light his way. Locals eventually began carving scary faces into their own turnips to frighten away evil spirits.
Seeing Ghosts
The festival of Samhain marked the transition to the new year at the end of the harvest and beginning of the winter. Celtic people believed that during the festival, spirits walked the Earth. Later on, Christian missionaries introduced All Souls' Day on November 2, which perpetuated the idea of the living coming into contact with the dead around the same time of year.
Wearing Scary Costumes
In order to avoid being terrorized by all the evil spirits walking the Earth during Samhain, the Celts donned disguises so that they would not be mistaken for spirits themselves and be left alone.
Trick-or-Treating
There is much debate around the origins of trick-or-treating, but generally there are three theories. The first theory suggests that during Samhain, Celtic people would leave food out to appease the spirits traveling the Earth at night. Over time, people began to dress as these unearthly beings in exchange for similar offerings of food and drink.

The second theory speculates that the candy boon stems from the Scottish practice of guising, which is a secular version of "souling." During the Middle Ages, generally children and poor adults would collect food and money from local homes in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls' Day. Guisers dropped the prayers in favor of non-religious practices with the inclusion of songs, jokes, and other "tricks."

A third theory argues that modern American trick-or-treating stems from " belsnickeling ," a German-American Christmas tradition where children would dress in costume and then call on their neighbors to see if the adults could guess the identities of the disguised. In one version of the practice, the children were rewarded with food or other treats if no one could identify them.
Black Cats
The idea of being spooked by black cats dates back to the Middle Ages, when these dark felines were considered a symbol of the Devil. It didn't help that centuries later, accused witches were often found to have cats, particularly black ones. People began to believe that the cats were a witch's "familiar" -supernatural entities that would assist in their practice of dark magic-and black cats and spookiness have been linked ever since.
Black and Orange
The traditional Halloween colors of black and orange also traces back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. For the Celts, black represented the "death" of summer while the orange symbolized the autumn harvest season.
Bobbing for Apples
The game of bobbing for apples has been a staple at Halloween parties for many years, but its origins are more rooted in love and romance. The game that was part of a traces back to a courting ritual Roman festival honoring Pomona, the goddess of agriculture and abundance. While multiple versions existed, the gist was that young men and women would be able to predict their future relationships based on the game. When the Romans conquered the British Isles in 43 AD, the Pomona festival blended with the similarly timed Samhain, a precursor to Halloween.
Pranking
Playing pranks often varies by region, but the pre-Halloween tradition known as " Devil's Night," is credited to a different origin depending on the source. Some say that pranks started as part of May Day celebrations. But Samhain, and eventually All Souls Day, also included good-natured mischief. When Irish and Scottish immigrants came to America, they brought with them the tradition of celebrating Mischief Night as part of Halloween.
Lighting Candles and Bonfires
For much of the early history of Halloween, towering bonfires were used to light the way for souls seeking the afterlife. These days, lighting candles have generally replaced the large traditional blazes.
Candy Apples
For centuries, people have been coating fruit in syrup as a means of preservation. But during the Roman festival of Pomona, the goddess was often represented by and associated with apples; her name derives from the Latin word for apple "pomum" and the fruit is at the heart of harvest celebrations. It is believed that candy apples were invented accidentally in 1908 by William W. Kolb, a candymaker in Newark, New Jersey. As the story goes, Kolb was experimenting with red cinnamon candy to sell at Christmastime and he dipped apples on sticks into the red glaze and put them in his shop window to showcase his new candy. But instead of selling the candies, he ended up selling the apples to customers who thought they looked good enough to eat. They became fashionable treats for Halloween starting in the early 1900s and they remained popular up until the 1970s.
Bats
Bats were likely present at the earliest proto-Halloween celebrations, not just symbolically but literally. As part of Samhain, Celts lit large bonfires, which attracted insects, which in turn, attracted bats. Soon spotting bats became connected with the festival. Medieval folklore expanded upon the eeriness of bats with a number of superstitions built around the belief that bats were harbingers of death.
Devouring Candy
The act of going door-to-door for handouts has long been a part of Halloween revelries. But until the mid-20th century, the "treats" children received were not necessarily candy. Things like fruit, nuts, coins, and toys were just as likely to be given out. Trick-or-treating rose in popularity in the 1950s and it inspired candy companies to market small, individually wrapped candies. People began to favor the confections out of convenience, but candy did not dominate at the exclusion of all other treats until the 1970s when parents started fearing anything unwrapped.
Candy Corn
A candymaker at the Wunderle Candy Company in Philadelphia is sometimes credited with inventing the tri-colored candy in the 1880s. But candy corn did not become a widespread sensation until the Goelitz Company brought the candy to the masses in 1898. Candy corn was originally called "Chicken Feed" and it sold in boxes with the slogan "Something worth crowing for." Initially, it was just an autumnal candy because of corn's association with harvest time. Candy corn later became Halloween-specific when trick-or-treating grew in popularity in the U.S. during the 1950s.

What are some other Halloween traditions that you enjoy? Share them in the comments.
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The Origins of Halloween Traditions | Headlines and Heroes

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Carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and wearing scary costumes are some of the time-honored traditions of Halloween. Yet, the Halloween holiday has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced "SAH-win"), a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

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Lunes, 2 de Octubre de 2017

Where did Halloween originate? England, the USA, Ireland, Wales ...? Read our October article and find out.
As the 31st October approaches, many people around the world will once again be marking Halloween with what have become traditional activities - carved pumpkins, trick-or-treating and fancy dress. Many people think Halloween is an Americanised festival of ghosts and ghouls - but did you know that most of the activities associated with this time of year are originally from Celtic folklore and tradition?
Halloween, also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is celebrated every year on the 31st of October by many people all over the world. The modern-day Halloween is said to have originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, held around the 1st of November, the date that marked the transition from autumn to winter. It was at this time of year that people believed the boundary between the worlds of living and dead became blurred, and was when the souls of the dead were said to revisit their homes.

According to many scholars, All Hallows' Eve is a Christian feast influenced by Celtic harvest festivals. Initially, it was practiced only in small Irish Catholic settlements, until thousands of Irish migrated to America during the great potato famine and brought their customs with them.
Trick or treat?
The idea of trick-or-treating is also related to the ghosts of the dead in pagan, and even Catholic, history. As America welcomed the large number of immigrants in the second half of the nineteenth century, with them came their Halloween traditions. The English and Irish are credited with early trick-or-treating, and brought with them the custom of dressing up, and travelling door-to-door to ask for food.

These traditions, began in Britain and Ireland in the Middle-Ages, when children and sometimes poor adults would dress up in costumes and go around door to door begging for food or money in exchange for songs and prayers, often said on behalf of the dead. This was called "souling" and the children were called "soulers". A common food given while souling was a small, round "soul cake", often with a cross marked on top, that represented a soul being freed when the cake was eaten. These cakes were generally sweet, made with nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and raisins.
"Guising"
Masks and costumes were used to hide one's attendance at pagan festivals to change the personality of the wearer to allow for communication with the spirit world. Here, costumes could be worn to ward off evil spirits. "Guising" (from disguise) may have originated with the Celtic ceremonial participants, who wore animal heads and skins to acquire the strength of a particular animal in order to either scare away the ghosts or to keep away from being recognized by them.
Before the pumpkin
Among the Irish, who prompted the popularisation of Halloween in America, the legend of "Irish Jack" explains the use of pumpkins in order to symbolize "jack-o'-lantern".

Across Britain, people used turnips, or sometimes beetroot or potatoes, to make their own versions of these lanterns - carving scary faces into them and placing them near doorways or windows to frighten away Jack and other wandering evil spirits.

During the 19th Century, when immigrants to the USA took these traditions with them, they quickly discovered that pumpkins, the native American fruit, are far easier to carve into elaborate faces and shapes, and make perfect jack o'lanterns.
Modern day Halloween
Today we celebrate Halloween as a festival full of excitement and fun for kids as they are involved in various activities such as making Halloween costumes, trick-or-treating, telling scary Halloween stories and eating sweets. But Halloween is not for kids only. More and more adults are celebrating this festival as well. After all, who doesn't want to dress up as their favorite superhero or scary monster and head out to a fancy-dress party? So whatever your age, go and enjoy this middle-age festival and have a happy Halloween!

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Lunes, 2 de Octubre de 2017 Where did Halloween originate? England, the USA, Ireland, Wales ...? Read our October article and find out. As the 31st October approaches, many people around the world will once again be marking Halloween with what have become traditional activities - carved pumpkins, trick-or-treating and fancy dress.

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When Is Halloween 2023?

Halloween is celebrated each year on October 31. Halloween 2023 will take place on Tuesday, October 31.

Ancient History of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.

When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

Did you know? One quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.

By A.D. 43, the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

All Saints' Day

On May 13, A.D. 609, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.

By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In A.D. 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It's widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.

All Souls' Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints' Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

How Did Halloween Start in America?

The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies.

As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing.

Did you know? More people are buying costumes for their pets. Americans spent nearly $500 million on costumes for their pets in 2021-more than double what they spent in 2010.

Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the 19th century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.

History of Trick-or-Treating

Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes.

Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

Halloween Parties

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide Halloween parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities during this time.

By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.

Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.

Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday after Christmas.

Halloween Movies

Speaking of commercial success, scary Halloween movies have a long history of being box office hits. Classic Halloween movies include the "Halloween" franchise, based on the 1978 original film directed by John Carpenter and starring Donald Pleasance, Nick Castle, Jamie Lee Curtis and Tony Moran. In "Halloween," a young boy named Michael Myers murders his 17-year-old sister and is committed to jail, only to escape as a teen on Halloween night and seek out his old home, and a new target. A direct sequel to the original "Halloween" was released in 2018, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle. A sequel to that, "Halloween Kills," was released in 2021; and a sequel to that, "Halloween Ends," was released in 2022.

Considered a classic horror film down to its spooky soundtrack, "Halloween" inspired other iconic "slasher films" like "Scream," "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13." More family-friendly Halloween movies include "Hocus Pocus," "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Beetlejuice" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

All Souls Day and Soul Cakes

The American Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling," was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry.

On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.

On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Black Cats and Ghosts on Halloween

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.

Today's Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into black cats.

We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred (it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe). And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

Halloween Matchmaking and Lesser-Known Rituals

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today's trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead.

In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday-with luck, by next Halloween-be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.

In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl's future husband. (In some versions of this legend, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband.

Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands' initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands' faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry. At others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.

Of course, whether we're asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the goodwill of the very same "spirits" whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.

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Halloween: Origins, Meaning & Traditions

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Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain and is now a worldwide event. Learn more about Halloween's origins, traditions, interesting facts, scary movies and more.

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When is Day of the Dead 2023?

The Day of the Dead is observed on November 2 each year. It follows on from All Hallows Eve on October 31 and The Day of the Children and All Saints Day on November 1.

History of Day of the Dead

The ancient indigenous people of Mexico have practiced rituals celebrating the lives of past ancestors for around 3,000 years. The celebration that is now known as Day of the Dead originally landed on the ninth month of the Aztec calendar and was observed for the entire month. In the 20th century, the month long festivities were condensed to three days called The Days of the Dead: Halloween on October 31, Day of the Innocents on November 1, and Day of the Dead on November 2.

La Catrina is one of the most recognizable figures of Day of the Dead, a towering female skeleton with vibrant make up and a flamboyant feathery hat. The Lady of Death worshipped by the Aztecs protected their departed loved ones, guiding them through their final stages of the life and death cycles. La Catrina that we know today came to be in the early 1900s by controversial and political cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada. Artist and husband of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, included José's La Catrina in one of his murals which depicted 400 years of Mexican history. His mural, "Dreams of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park", includes himself and a young child holding hands with La Catrina, who is dressed in sophisticated garb and a fancy feathered hat.

Plans for Day of the Dead are made throughout the year. Toys are offered to dead children and bottles of alcohol or jars of alote get offered to dead adults. Most families decorate their loved ones' graves with ofrendas, which often includes marigolds. It's said that these specific flowers attract the souls of the dead to the offerings, and the bright petals and strong scent guides the souls from the cemetery to their family's home.

Since the 1960s, when the Mexican government declared it a public holiday based on educational policy initiatives, Dia de Muertos has been observed throughout Mexico. The tradition was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's Representative List of Humanity's Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.

The main tradition for Day of the Dead sees families gather to honor and remember their loved ones who are no longer with us. Celebrated as a sacred and joyous occasion, there is plenty of food, lots of flowers, visits with family members and nostalgic stories about those who have died.

Day of the Dead FAQs

What happens on the Day of the Dead?

As per Mexican tradition, Day of the Dead is celebrated by offering goods to past loved ones and celebrating their lives.

What colors are used in Dia de los Muertos?

This holiday uses the colors yellow and orange to portray marigolds, the sun, and light. Marigolds are the flowers of the dead, and their strong scent and bright colors are thought to aid the deceased in finding their way back home.

What is an ofrenda for Día de los Muertos?

An ofrenda is a collection of offerings and decorative objects place on a ritual display during Day of the Dead celebrations.

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Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, is a traditional Mexican holiday celebrated November 2. It is believed that the souls of the dead return to visit their living family members.

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Celebrating Life on Day of the Dead in Mexico

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Celebrating Life on Day of the Dead in Mexico

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One of Mexico's most important religious holidays is celebrated on All Saint's Day (November 1) and All Soul's Day (November 2): Dia de los Muertos (sometimes called Dia de los Fieles Difuntos) - Day of the Dead.

Traditionally, November 1st honors deceased children and November 2nd honors deceased adults. Day of the Dead is celebrated passionately throughout Mexico, and especially so in smaller provincial towns and cities. November 2nd is an official Public Holiday in Mexico.

Mexico's Day of Dead: a celebration of life

Far from being a morbid event, Day of Dead emphasizes remembrance of past lives and expresses celebration of the continuity of life. This acknowledgement of life's continuity has roots which go back to some of Mexico's oldest civilizations including the Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, and Purépecha. The Aztecs also celebrated Day of the Dead, although earlier -August- on the current calendar.

Local festivities and traditions vary from place to place, although the are the focal point of the celebrations during the festive period. Mexico City hosts a large and elaborate procession downtown, and provincial towns and cities hold religious processions to mark the occasion. It's currently fashionable for participants to have their face painted to emulate Catrinas .

Although Halloween on October 31st and Dia de los Muertos on November 1st and 2nd are strictly speaking two distinct events, in recent times the two festive dates have blended into each other illustrating how Mexico is adept at assimilating foreign things without losing its own identity-and often putting a particularly Mexican stamp on them.

La Ofrenda: an altar of remembrance

Local families will plan for Day of the Dead celebrations days, weeks, or perhaps even a whole year in advance. A focal point of the remembrance ritual is families creating ofrendas - altars with offerings to the deceased- which are set-up in homes or public spaces like parks or plazas, and also at local cemeteries where family members are buried.

These colorful altars, which are also an art form and personal expression of love towards one's family members now passed, are not for worshiping but instead for the purpose of remembrance and celebration of a life lived.

They are usually layered: the top tier contains a picture or pictures of the remembered deceased as well as religious statues or symbols, especially that of La Virgen Guadalupe; the second tier will contain the ofrendas: toys are usually offered for deceased children, and bottles of tequila, mezcal, or atole for deceased adults. Personal ornaments, and/or the deceased's favorite food or confection will also be present here, as will Pan de Muerto. The third tier will feature lit candles, and some people add a washbasin and a towel so that the spirits of the deceased may refresh themselves upon arrival at the altar.

Every altar will feature calaveras -decorated candied skulls made from sugar - as well as the bright orange marigolds, colloquially referred to as flor de muerto ("Flower of the Dead"), one of the iconic symbols woven into Day of the Dead celebrations across Mexico.

During the celebratory period, it's traditional for families to visit local cemeteries where their loved ones are buried, where they clean and to decorate the graves with similar offerings to those included in the home's altar.

Catrinas: artistic symbol of Day of the Dead celebrations

The character on which La Calavera Catrina -"The elegant skull" - is based was conceived by Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada. The original Catrina was titled La Calavera Garbancera: in the form of an artistic etching in zinc, composed for use as political satire around 1910, intended to poke fun at a certain social class of Mexicans who the artist portrayed as having European-aristocratic aspirations; thus the Catrina's archetypal grandiose plumed hat of a style which passed through a period of high fashion in Europe during that age. This related article explains the history and culture of Catrinas in Mexico.

Pan de Muerto and hot chocolate: the traditional treat on Day of the Dead

One of the culinary highlights of the season is Pan de Muerto -Bread of the Dead- which is a semi-sweet sugar-dusted bread made from eggs and infused with natural citrus fruit flavors. It's traditionally taken with hot chocolate that has been mixed with cinnamon and whisked, a pairing that creates a warming blend for enjoyment on a chilly November evening. Learn how to enjoy Pan de Muerto in Mexico.

Pátzcuaro and Oaxaca: popular towns to celebrate, with plenty of color elsewhere too

Day of the Dead is a holiday that attracts a certain fascination for visitors from abroad, and enjoyed by foreign residents who witness the unfolding of local festivities in their adopted towns and villages each year.

Celebrations in the colonial city of Oaxaca and the ancient highland town of Pátzcuaro are particularly well attended by foreign visitors, and forward planning is vital if you want to experience Day of the Dead at either of these places.

Even if you can't get to Oaxaca or Pátzcuaro, you'll discover that communities across Mexico compose their own interpretations of the event to celebrate Day of the Dead, and so wherever you are in Mexico this time of year you'll have an opportunity to experience this distinctive celebration-one of the most colorful, poignant and atmospheric Mexico offers.

The precise ceremonies, offerings, and customs for Day of the Dead celebrations vary by region and town, but the essential traditions described here are an integral part of the event which is echoed all over Mexico.

A visit to a local cemetery, where family graves are dressed with color and decorations, a local park or plaza where ofrendas have been gathered, or a glimpse into one or more of the local homes which are opened-up to visitors during this period and where the lives of those past are lovingly remembered by those present is a rewarding and worthwhile cultural experience to behold.

Learn more about Day of the Dead in Mexico

We publish guides and articles to help you discover more about Day of the Dead in Mexico, as well as Pátzcuro and Oaxaca City.

Experience Day of the Dead with Mexperience

We work with long-established experts who know Mexico intimately and will arrange an inspiring travel experience for you. Contact us and we'll help you to plan a custom itinerary: Plan Your Mexico Trip

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Celebrating Life on Day of the Dead in Mexico

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One of Mexico's most important religious holidays is celebrated on All Saint's Day (November 1) and All Soul's Day (November 2): Dia de los Muertos (sometimes called Dia de los Fieles Difuntos) - Day of the Dead. Traditionally, November 1st honors deceased children and November 2nd honors deceased adults.

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How to celebrate Day of the Dead. Hint: It’s all about the joy of living.

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How to celebrate Day of the Dead. Hint: It’s all about the joy of living.

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Despite its name, Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos isn't about loss or sadness.

"It's a celebration of life," said Victoria Gonzalez, marketing and digital manager for Denver's Latino and Cultural Arts Center.

Every fall, leaders at the Latino and Cultural Arts Center meld ancient and contemporary traditions to celebrate Day of the Dead.

Gonzalez also is making a documentary about the history of Day of the Dead celebrations in Colorado.

The art center's seasonal celebration is called Ofrendas. Ofrendas are offerings placed on lovingly-designed altars, which include photos of loved ones, candles, flags and ancestors' favorite foods.

How to celebrate Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos

Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos celebrations have roots both in indigenous Aztec and Mayan cultures and Catholicism. Unique traditions have emerged in Mexico, Guatemala and among Mexican-Americans in U.S. cities like Los Angeles and Denver.

"The relationships that Mexicans, Chicanos or Latinos have with the dead are very different," Gonzalez said. "We don't see death as an endpoint. It's a journey. We invite our ancestors back into our homes to enjoy offerings that we set out on altars."

Some people conflate Day of the Dead with Halloween or think it's a scary holiday. Those perceptions are incomplete at best.

Day of the Dead is a lively, joyous occasion, marked by intricate altars in homes, dancing, parades in cities and celebrations at some graveyards. In Mexico, for instance, people celebrate Day of the Dead by decorating their loved ones' graves with bright orange marigolds, which are believed to light the way for ancestors to return.

In Colorado, you can visit traditional bakeries, like Rosales Mexican Bakery in Denver, where you can taste pan de muerto, or bread of the dead, a sweet and savory concoction. Or, you can buy colorful, decorated sugar skulls.

"We're honoring and remembering our ancestors," Gonzalez said. "People have feasts and enjoy meals together and tell stories and remember their loved ones. That's how we celebrate our dearly departed and keep their memory close."

Our loved ones remain very much alive through our memories of them and the way we celebrate their lives.

And, people can treasure those memories any time of the year. Gonzalez keeps an altar set up in her home all year long to remind herself to honor those who came before her.

Gonzalez is a fifth-generation Mexican American who grew up in Houston, but Day of the Dead celebrations have been lost in some Hispanic communities and families, while others never adopted the traditions.

"It wasn't until we moved to Denver that I was exposed to Day of the Dead," Gonzalez said. "I've learned to reconnect with that part of my heritage."

The holiday really could be called Days of the Dead or Días de Los Muertos because it's actually celebrated over two days: Nov. 1 and 2, and traditionally spans over months.

"Nov. 1 is dedicated to the children who have been lost," Gonzalez said. "Then the second day is a celebration for adults and everyone else."

Some people without Hispanic roots are newly enthusiastic about celebrating Day of the Dead since the Disney animated film, "Coco," popularized the holiday.

Gonzalez said the film isn't entirely accurate. But, all people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds are welcome at Day of the Dead celebrations.

"The best way to learn about Day of the Dead is to go into the community and experience it first-hand. All people are welcome," Gonzalez said. "Just be in the community and be open to learning about something outside of your comfort zone. Embrace it with love and find new ways to come together and build a healthier city and nation."

Where to celebrate Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos in Colorado:

Día de los Muertos at Denver Art Society

Enjoy a cultural celebration of Día de los Muertos with Aztec dancers, facing painting, a "best-dressed contest" and more.

When: Saturday, October 29 from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Where: 734 Santa Fe Drive, Denver

Celebrate Day of the Dead on First Friday, Nov. 4, in Denver with the Museo de Las Americas

The Museo will host an array of activities, performance and vendors. This event is free and open to the public from 5 to 9 p.m. View the schedule of events and view them below. Where? Denver's Art District on Santa Fe. The museum is located at 861 Santa Fe Drive in Denver and businesses, residents and art galleries in the district join in the Day of the Dead festivities.

Enjoy all the events sponsored by Denver's Latino and Cultural Arts Center and their partners:

Denver's Latino and Cultural Arts Center hosts several events in celebration of Day of the Dead. Learn about the events and sign up.

Run or walk in the Day of the Dead 5K/10K Run/Walk, City Park, Denver, Oct. 23

This event benefits Denver's Latino Leadership Institute. The Latino Leadership Institute at the University of Denver honors the heritage of leadership, advances Latino professionals to positions of influence, and prepares organizations to innovate for the workplace of tomorrow.

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a time to honor and celebrate our deceased loved ones. After more than a year of challenges and loss, Longmont Museum's annual exhibition and programs will bring the community together to honor the memories of those we have loved and lost and to celebrate together in person again.

Attracting more than 6,000 people annually, Longmont's Day of the Dead exhibition and celebration is the longest-standing celebration in Colorado.

Longmont Museum Día de los Muertos Exhibition

October 8 - November 6; free
The Día de los Muertos exhibition returns to the Longmont Museum's Swan Atrium, featuring ofrendas (altars) built by community members and the work of Longmont artist, Mario Olvera. Olvera's artistic lens has become an inseparable part of both his professional and personal life, beautifully woven into his endeavors as a visual artist, educator, youth mentor, Aztec dancer, and father. Using art as a vessel to foster self-acceptance and respect among marginalized populations, Mario has become an influential teacher in Longmont and the surrounding region.

Longmont Day of the Dead Family Celebration

Saturday, October 8

The Día de los Muertos street festival and family celebration includes music and dance performances, arts and craft activities, cultural education, delicious food, downtown business altars, and the Gigantes Procession. Día de los Muertos exhibitions at both the Longmont Museum and Firehouse will also be open and free. Park downtown or at the Longmont Museum and take the free shuttle between locations so you can enjoy all the activities of the day.

Family Fiesta
2-6 p.m.; free
Downtown Longmont at 4th Avenue & Main Street

Gigantes Procession
6-6:30 p.m. starting at the Fiesta; free

On the Web

Longmont's leaders provide online materials for everyone to enjoy.

Visit longmontdayofthedead.com (English) for information about all things Día de Muertos in Longmont and thematic content highlighting the origins and traditions that make Day of the Dead a meaningful and heartwarming holiday. Follow along to cook with family, create traditional crafts, build your own altar, and more.

Denver Botanic Gardens celebrates Dia de los Muertos on Nov. 5 with an array of artistic performances, a costume contest, a mercado and much more. Check out the full schedule of events in late October.

Dia de los Muertos costumes are strongly encouraged.

Children 15 and under are free, but tickets are required.

Tickets must be purchased in advance and are not available onsite.

El Mercado

Shop our Mercado, showcasing artist vendors from Colorado selling their Día de los Muertos original art pieces, prints, folk art, jewelry, t-shirt designs and more.

Related Event

Calacas Art Exchange

Denver Botanic Gardens' annual Día de Los Muertos celebration extends to Aurora Public Library this year, welcoming seven larger-than-life papier mache calaveras hand-painted by several Colorado artists. The Calacas Art Exchange Project is a community art initiative in partnership with Aurora Public Library, as part of its Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, created to bring artists, organizers and community members together to promote and share the rich cultural and artistic traditions of Día de Los Muertos.

Be sure to visit all Aurora Public Library branches as each will host a Calaca painted by a different artist. To locate your favorite branch, visit AuroraLibrary.org.

Enjoy this activity at various library branches. Learn about the significance of sugar skulls known in Spanish as calaveras de azúcar as you make your very own to take home.

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How to celebrate Day of the Dead. Hint: It's all about the joy of living.

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Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos is all about living. Celebrate Day of the Dead by building an altar, creating art or joining a parade.

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The Day of the Dead (el Día de los Muertos), is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration.

A blend of Mesoamerican ritual, European religion and Spanish culture, the holiday is celebrated each year from October 31-November 2. While October 31 is Halloween, November 1-2 is All Souls Day or the Day of the Dead. According to tradition, the gates of heaven are opened at midnight on October 31 and the spirits of children can rejoin their families for 24 hours. The spirits of adults can do the same on November 2.

Origins of Day of the Dead

The roots of the Day of the Dead, celebrated in contemporary Mexico and among those of Mexican heritage in the United States and around the world, go back some 3,000 years, to the rituals honoring the dead in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The Aztecs and other Nahua people living in what is now central Mexico held a cyclical view of the universe, and saw death as an integral, ever-present part of life.

Upon dying, a person was believed to travel to Chicunamictlán, the Land of the Dead. Only after getting through nine challenging levels, a journey of several years, could the person's soul finally reach Mictlán, the final resting place. In Nahua rituals honoring the dead, traditionally held in August, family members provided food, water and tools to aid the deceased in this difficult journey. This inspired the contemporary Day of the Dead practice in which people leave food or other offerings on their loved ones' graves, or set them out on makeshift altars called ofrendasin their homes.

Day of the Dead vs. All Souls Day

In ancient Europe, pagan celebrations of the dead also took place in the fall, and consisted of bonfires, dancing and feasting. Some of these customs survived even after the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, which (unofficially) adopted them into their celebrations of two Catholic holidays, All Saints Day and All Souls Day, celebrated on the first two days of November.

In medieval Spain, people would bring bring wine and pan de ánimas (spirit bread) to the graves of their loved ones on All Souls Day; they would also cover graves with flowers and light candles to illuminate the dead souls' way back to their homes on Earth. In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadores brought such traditions with them to the New World, along with a darker view of death influenced by the devastation of the bubonic plague.

How Is the Day of the Dead Celebrated?

El Día de los Muertos is not, as is commonly thought, a Mexican version of Halloween, though the two holidays do share some traditions, including costumes and parades. On the Day of the Dead, it's believed that the border between the spirit world and the real world dissolves. During this brief period, the souls of the dead awaken and return to the living world to feast, drink, dance and play music with their loved ones. In turn, the living family members treat the deceased as honored guests in their celebrations, and leave the deceased's favorite foods and other offerings at gravesites or on the ofrendas built in their homes. Ofrendas can be decorated with candles, bright marigolds called cempasuchil and red cock's combs alongside food like stacks of tortillas and fruit.

The most prominent symbols related to the Day of the Dead are calacas (skeletons) and calaveras (skulls). In the early 20th century, the printer and cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada incorporated skeletal figures in his art mocking politicians and commenting on revolutionary politics. His most well-known work, La Calavera Catrina, or Elegant Skull, features a female skeleton adorned with makeup and dressed in fancy clothes. The 1910 etching was intended as a statement about Mexicans adopting European fashions over their own heritage and traditions. La Calavera Catrina was then adopted as one of the most recognizable Day of the Dead icons.

During contemporary Day of the Dead festivities, people commonly wear skull masks and eat sugar candy molded into the shape of skulls. The pan de ánimas of All Souls Day rituals in Spain is reflected in pan de muerto, the traditional sweet baked good of Day of the Dead celebrations today. Other food and drink associated with the holiday, but consumed year-round as well, include spicy dark chocolate and the corn-based drink called atole. You can wish someone a happy Day of the Dead by saying, "Feliz día de los Muertos."

Movies Featuring Day of the Dead

Traditionally, the Day of the Dead was celebrated largely in the more rural, indigenous areas of Mexico, but starting in the 1980s it began spreading into the cities. UNESCO reflected growing awareness of the holiday in 2008, when it added Mexico's "Indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead" to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In recent years, the tradition has developed even more due to its visibility in pop culture and its growing popularity in the United States, where more than 36 million people identified as being of partial or full Mexican ancestry as of 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Inspired by the 2015 James Bond movie Spectre, which featured a large Day of the Dead parade, Mexico City held its first-ever parade for the holiday in 2016. In 2017, a number of major U.S. cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Fort Lauderdale, held Day of the Dead parades. That November, Disney and Pixar released the blockbuster animated hit Coco, a $175 million homage to the Mexican tradition in which a young boy is transported to the Land of the Dead and meets up with his long-lost ancestors.

Though the particular customs and scale of Day of the Dead celebrations continue to evolve, the heart of the holiday has remained the same over thousands of years. It's an occasion for remembering and celebrating those who have passed on from this world, while at the same time portraying death in a more positive light, as a natural part of the human experience.

Sources

Día de los Muertos: A Brief History, National Hispanic Cultural Center
Giardina, Carolyn, "'Coco': How Pixar Brought its 'Day of the Dead' Story to Life," Hollywood Reporter, December 12, 2017
Dobrin, Isabel, "Día de los Muertos Comes to Life Across the Mexican Diaspora," NPR, November 2, 2017
Scott, Chris. "Day of the Dead parade - Life imitates art," CNN, October 28, 2016
Mictlantecuhtli, Ancient History Encyclopedia

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