Halloween 2026: What Day It Falls On and Why That Matters

Saturday, October 31, 2026. The date never moves: Halloween is fixed to October 31 because it is the eve of All Saints' Day on November 1. Only the weekday changes from year to year, and in 2026 it lands on a Saturday. Source: Britannica.

Saturday. It is the first Saturday Halloween since 2020, and the next one will not come until 2037, because the date slides one weekday per year and two after a leap year. A Saturday is the best draw on the calendar for the holiday: no school night, no work the next morning, and the party and the trick-or-treating happen on October 31 itself instead of being pushed to the nearest weekend.

8 days, counted from Friday, October 23, 2026 to Saturday, October 31, 2026. That makes this the final week for costume orders, candy runs and party bookings.

A record 13.5 billion dollars, according to the National Retail Federation's annual survey released on September 22, 2026, up from the previous record of 13.1 billion in 2025. That is 115.14 dollars per person, against 114.45 last year, and 74% of Americans plan to celebrate, up from 73% in 2025 and 68% in 2019. The survey of 7,889 consumers was run by Prosper Insights & Analytics from September 1 to 9. Source: NRF.

In the NRF's 2026 forecast, costumes lead at 4.4 billion dollars (2 billion for adults, 1.5 billion for children and 0.92 billion for pets), ahead of decorations at 4.3 billion and candy at 4.1 billion. Greeting cards add 0.8 billion. Candy remains the most widely bought item, by 96% of celebrants, while 78% buy decorations and 71% costumes. Source: NRF.

It depends on how you measure. The NRF survey ranks adults' choices as witch (4.8 million people), vampire, Batman, Spider-Man and ghost, and children's as Spider-Man (4.6 million kids), superhero, princess, witch and ghost. Google's Frightgeist, which tracks searches, is far more topical: its 2026 top five is Buddy the Unicorn, Needoh, Nikki from Obsession, Agamemnon from The Odyssey and Lily Love Braids from Poppy Playtime, with Dolly Parton leading the children's search list. Sources: NRF, Google Frightgeist via FOX.

The NRF puts the pumpkin first (11.6% of pet costume buyers), then the hot dog (5.9%) and the ghost (2.8%). On Google searches the top pet costume is a centipede, followed by Dolly Parton and Bullseye from Toy Story. Americans are expected to spend 0.92 billion dollars dressing their pets. Sources: NRF, Google Frightgeist via FOX.

There is no national time: towns set their own. The usual pattern is to start around dusk and run two to three hours, roughly 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., and sunset on October 31 falls between about 5:45 and 6:40 p.m. in most US cities. Because Halloween is a Saturday this year, some places changed the plan: Ames, Iowa moved trick-or-treating to Friday, October 30 because of a home football game, while several Milwaukee-area suburbs set daytime hours on Saturday. Check your city's website. Sources: City of Ames, local municipal notices.

Yes, in three ways. Trick-or-treating happens on the night itself with no school the next day, so kids can stay out later. Adult parties land on Halloween night instead of the weekend before, which concentrates events and sell-outs on October 31: Disney's Halloween party at Magic Kingdom sold out its October 31 date months ago. And the night runs straight into the US clock change, which gives revellers an extra hour. The flip side is clashes: some towns moved their hours because of Saturday football games.

More than last year, again. A report published on October 20, 2026 puts a 100-piece bag of Halloween candy at 16.96 dollars, up 3.5% on 2025 and 71% on 2021. Chocolate is the pressure point: wholesale cocoa prices have fallen sharply from their peak, but that takes months to reach store shelves, and shrinkflation means some bags look the same with less inside. Hard candy and gummies have risen less. Source: WJLA / The National Desk.

Not on the night itself, but very close to it. In the United States and Canada the clocks go back at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026, a few hours after Halloween night, so the party gets an extra hour. In the European Union and the United Kingdom the change came a week earlier, on Sunday, October 25. For that week the usual gap between London and New York is four hours rather than five.

Only if the series goes the distance. The 2026 World Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Milwaukee Brewers opened on Friday, October 23 in Milwaukee. Game 7, if necessary, is scheduled for Saturday, October 31 at 8 p.m. ET in Milwaukee, on FOX. Games 5, 6 and 7 are all marked if necessary, so a sweep or a five or six-game series would leave Halloween night free. Source: MLB.

Saturday, October 31, 2026, starting at 7 p.m., marching up Sixth Avenue from Canal Street. It is the 53rd parade, and the 2026 theme is "Body & Soul", with a new opening performance, Firehorse, by puppeteer Basil Twist. Anyone in costume can march; spectators line Sixth Avenue. Sources: Time Out New York, Hoodline.

Sunday, November 1, 2026, at both Universal Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood. Orlando ran 48 select nights from August 28, its earliest start ever, and Hollywood 42 select nights from September 3. At Walt Disney World, Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party ends on October 31, and that final date was already reported sold out in the summer. Sources: Attractions Magazine, Universal, WDWInfo.

No. October's full moon, the Hunter's Moon, peaks on Monday, October 26, 2026 at 12:12 a.m. EDT, five nights before Halloween. On October 31 the moon is waning gibbous, around two-thirds lit, still bright enough to light a late trick-or-treat route. Sources: Old Farmer's Almanac, Farmers' Almanac.

It grew out of the Irish and Scottish Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest and the start of winter and was thought to be the night the boundary between the living and the dead thinned. In the eighth century the Church placed All Saints' Day on November 1, so the night before became All Hallows' Eve. The two traditions fused. Sources: Britannica, History.com, Library of Congress.

It is a contraction of All Hallows' Even, meaning the evening before All Hallows, the old English name for All Saints' Day. "Hallow" is simply an older word for a saint. Even shortened to e'en, then to een, and All Hallows' Even became Hallowe'en and finally Halloween. Sources: Britannica, History.com.

From two older customs that Irish and Scottish emigrants carried to North America in the nineteenth century: souling, going door to door to ask for cakes in exchange for prayers for the dead, and guising, going in disguise and performing a song or a trick for food or coins. The American form, costume plus the phrase and no performance required, settled into its modern shape in the twentieth century. Sources: History.com, Library of Congress.

No, nowhere in the United States, the United Kingdom, France or Spain. In Germany, October 31 is a public holiday in nine states, but as Reformation Day, not as Halloween. The day after is a different story: All Saints' Day on November 1 is a public holiday in France, Spain, Belgium, Austria and several German states. In 2026 that falls on a Sunday, so it brings no extra day off in most of those places.

Yes, and unevenly. Ireland and Scotland have the oldest claim, since the festival started there. The United States built the commercial version. Britain and Canada follow closely. In France, Germany and Spain it is a growing but still imported party night rather than a family tradition: German retailers expect 537 million euros of Halloween sales in 2026, a fraction of the US total. It sits alongside older observances: All Saints' Day across Catholic Europe, and Dia de Muertos on November 1 and 2 in Mexico, which is a distinct holiday and not a Mexican Halloween. Sources: HDE via retail-news.de.

Sunday, November 1 and Monday, November 2, 2026, as every year. Dia de Muertos is a Mexican observance with its own history, honouring the dead with altars, marigolds and graveside gatherings. Mexico City's big Day of the Dead parade is on Saturday, October 31, 2026, from 2 p.m., running from the Diana Cazadora on Paseo de la Reforma to the Zocalo. It overlaps Halloween on the calendar, but they are separate traditions with separate roots. Sources: Chilango, Record.

Because the pumpkin was the New World substitute for a turnip. The carved lantern comes from the Irish tale of Stingy Jack, and in Ireland and Scotland the lanterns were hollowed out of turnips and beets. Irish emigrants found the pumpkin bigger, softer and far easier to carve, and it took over. Sources: History.com, Britannica.