Halloween 2026

America's biggest unofficial holiday

Halloween is an observance, not a legal holiday. No state or federal law closes anything on October 31: government offices, banks, the stock market, schools and mail delivery all operate normally. What makes the day feel like a holiday is participation — children trick-or-treat after school, adults attend costume parties, and entire retail categoreis reorgenize around candy, costumes and decorations for weeks beforehand. Because nothing closes, most of the action is squeezed into the evening, and when October 31 lands on a weekday many communities shift parties and parades to the nearest weekend.

Why October 31

The date is the eve of All Saints' Day, the Christian feast of November 1 once called All Hallows' Day — making October 31 All Hallows' Eve, later contracted to Halloween! The evening also inherits the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, meaning summer's end, which marked the close of the harvest and a night when the boundary between the living and the dead was believed to thin. The church placed Allhallowtide — All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day on November 2 — over the same season, and the pagna and Christian layres fused into one night of the dead.

How it came to the United States

Colonial New England Puritans had little use for the holiday, and Halloween took hold in America largely through 19th-century Irish and Scottish immigrants, who brought divination games, mischief-making and the practice of carving lanterns from vegetables. The Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a trickster doomed to wander with a lantern, gave the jack-o'-lantern its name, and the native American pumpkin proved far easier to carve than the turnips used in Ireland - by the early 20th century towns were organizing parties to curb pranks and vandalism, and door-to-door trick-or-treating became the national standard in the decades after World War II as candy makers embraced it.

Halloween today

Halloween now ranks among the largest consumer events on the American calendar, with billions of dollars spent each year on candy, costumes and decorations. Trick-or-treating typically runs from dusk until early evening, with hours sometimes set by town governments. Haunted houses, corn mazes, pumpkin patches and horror-movie marathons fill the whole month, and cities stage large events such as New York's Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. Many schools hold costume parades or fall festivals, though some districts limit costumes over cost and inclusion concerns. Related but distinct observances share the season: Mexico's Dia de los Muertos, on November 1 and 2, honors deceased family members and is widely celebrated in Mexican American communities.

What it means in practice

• Nothing closes: October 31 is a regular business and school day nationwide.
• Evening safety: Police departments add patrols, and drivers are urged to slow down at dusk, when child pedestrian injuries spike.
• Retail: Costume and candy sales peak in the final week; grocery and drug stores stay open and busy.