Halloween in Australia. What do Aussies do? How does it differ?

The 31st of October is Halloween in Australia, and it is widely celebrated. It is the evening preceding All Saints’ Day, thus the other name, All Hallows’ Eve. During this time of year, many people throw costume parties and kids all over the world go trick-or-treating at local businesses.

The practice of celebrating Halloween is on the rise in Australia. Some companies and groups host Halloween-themed parties for their employees and clientele to network, while others use the holiday as inspiration for their annual fund-raising events.

Some Halloween parties, in keeping with the spirit of the holiday, are hosted in purportedly haunted locations and feature guests dressed in costumes appropriate for the occasion. Paranormal investigations, treks, and tours peak in popularity around Halloween. The planned visits of parents and children to their neighbors for treats known as “trick-or-treating" are also becoming more popular in Australia. These kids either give their neighbors a treat or a trick.

During this time, some people like to decorate their houses in a Halloween motif. Halloween ornaments such as faux spiderwebs, pumpkins carved into scary faces, and pictures of spooky creatures like black cats and witches are popular choices. At this time of year, you can find a lot of merchandise with a Halloween theme at stores. Businesses that specialize in selling or renting out Halloween-related things, such as costumes and decorations, do well at this time of year. Movie theaters could also host marathons or special showings of horror or supernatural themed films.

With the scariest date in the Australian calendar on the horizon, research conducted by McCrindle Research in 2011 showed a quarter of Australians (26%) planned to celebrate Halloween, with 8% certain that they would. Over half of those (51%) with primary school-aged children planned to get spooky last Halloween and 7 in 10 (71%) Australians said they are celebrating Halloween more than what they used to.

Despite Halloween’s growing popularity, new research conducted by McCrindle Research in October 2012 showed that it still has a long way to go, with 2 in 5 (41%) seeing it as the “least meaningful” special event day of the year. In fact, just 2% of respondents rated it as the most meaningful to them.

Australia has not yet become a true Halloween nation. Slowly catching up to American culture, but October 31 still has a ways to go before it’s widely celebrated in Australia.

Halloween is still seen as “an American phenomenon" by many of these people. Despite the fact that modern Halloween has little to do with Celtic traditions, the holiday has a long and interesting history. Due to American influence, the celebration has evolved into a mainstream cultural phenomenon.