History of Halloween Timeline
From the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian Allhallowtide to trick-or-treating, jack-o'-lanterns and a $13.5 billion modern holiday.
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Key events
Celts observe Samhain
c. 500 BCEThe Gaelic festival of Samhain, around October 31 to November 1, marked the end of the harvest and the start of winter, when the boundary with the otherworld was thought to thin. Its exact antiquity is uncertain; the date here is a common estimate.
Pantheon dedicated to Mary and all martyrs
Pope Boniface IV rededicated Rome's Pantheon to the Virgin Mary and all martyrs, commemorated each May 13. Sources give 609 or 610.
Irish monks write down Samhain tales
8th century – 12th centuryMedieval Irish manuscripts copied by Christian monks are the main surviving source for pre-Christian Samhain beliefs and practices.
Gregory III dedicates a chapel to all saints on November 1
Pope Gregory III (731–741) dedicated a chapel in St. Peter's Basilica to all the saints on November 1, the first link between the feast and that date. The evening before became All Hallows' Eve.
All Saints' Day spreads across the Frankish Empire
At the request of Pope Gregory IV, Emperor Louis the Pious ordered November 1 kept as All Saints' Day throughout his empire, spreading the date across Western Christendom.
Odilo of Cluny institutes All Souls' Day
Abbot Odilo of Cluny set November 2 for prayers for all the faithful departed. With All Saints' Day it completed Allhallowtide, the three days of remembering the dead.
Soul cakes and souling
The poor went door to door at Allhallowtide, receiving soul cakes in return for prayers for the dead, a forerunner of trick-or-treating.
European witch trials
15th century – 17th centuryWaves of witch trials across Europe fed the folklore of witches, brooms and flying ointments that shapes Halloween imagery.
Guising recorded in Scotland and Ireland
16th centuryRecords describe people in disguise going house to house at Halloween, and mumming traditions, the roots of costumed visiting.
Luther posts the Ninety-five Theses
Martin Luther's theses, dated All Hallows' Eve, began the Reformation. Protestant regions later rejected prayers for the dead and suppressed many Allhallowtide customs.
"Halloween" first appears in print
The Scots contraction of All Hallows' Even is first recorded in print.
"Jack-o'-lantern" appears in print
The phrase is first recorded, at first meaning a night watchman, a man with a lantern.
Salem witch trials
Trials in Salem, Massachusetts, led to the execution of 20 people. Salem later became a center of Halloween tourism.
Robert Burns writes "Halloween"
Burns's poem describes Scottish Halloween customs such as fortune-telling games. Published in the 1786 Kilmarnock Edition, it spread the word "Halloween".
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
Washington Irving's tale of the Headless Horseman, who hurls a pumpkin, became a lasting part of American autumn lore.
Great Famine drives Irish emigration
–About a million Irish emigrated during the famine, many to North America, bringing guising, lantern carving and other Halloween customs with them.
The Stingy Jack legend in print
Hercules Ellis's "The Romance of Jack o' Lantern" is an early printed version of the Irish tale of Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil and wanders with a coal in a hollowed turnip.
Harper's Weekly shows a pumpkin jack-o'-lantern
An illustration in Harper's Weekly is among the earliest documented images of a carved pumpkin lantern.
Candy corn invented
1880sGeorge Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company in Philadelphia is credited with creating the tricolor candy.
Pumpkins replace turnips
1880sIn the United States, the large, easily carved native pumpkin largely replaced the turnip as the lantern of choice.
The Golden Bough
James Frazer's study of myth and ritual cast Samhain as a Celtic fire festival, an influential if debated view.
Children go door to door in Kingston, Ontario
The Kingston Daily Standard reported children in costume visiting houses for treats, an early North American account.
Anoka holds the first citywide Halloween
Anoka, Minnesota, staged a citywide celebration with a parade and costume contests to steer young people away from pranks. It calls itself the Halloween Capital of the World.
Harry Houdini dies on Halloween
The escape artist died in Detroit. From 1927, believers have held a Halloween séance each year to try to contact him.
"Trick or treat" appears in print
An Alberta newspaper report on Halloween in Blackie used the exact phrase, the earliest known printed example.
Ben Cooper mass-produces costumes
1930sBen Cooper Inc. began making cheap ready-made costumes, and by the 1960s held most of the US market.
The War of the Worlds broadcast
Orson Welles's Halloween-eve radio drama on CBS told of a Martian invasion in news-bulletin style and alarmed some listeners.
Sugar rationing ends
The end of wartime sugar rationing in the US cleared the way for the postwar trick-or-treating boom in the growing suburbs.
Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF begins
A Philadelphia Sunday school class collected coins for UNICEF while trick-or-treating, starting a campaign that has raised money for children ever since.
"Monster Mash" hits No. 1
Bobby "Boris" Pickett's novelty song topped the Billboard Hot 100 just before Halloween and returns every October.
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
The Peanuts TV special, first shown on CBS, in which Linus waits all night in the pumpkin patch, became an annual Halloween tradition.
Disneyland's Haunted Mansion opens
Disney's ghost-filled ride became a model for haunted attractions.
Trick-or-treating returns to Britain and Ireland
1970s – 1980sThrough American films and TV, trick-or-treating spread back to the UK and Ireland, where it had largely replaced guising by the 1980s.
Village Halloween Parade begins
Puppeteer and mask maker Ralph Lee started the Greenwich Village parade, which grew into the largest Halloween parade in the US.
The "Candy Man" poisoning
Ronald Clark O'Bryan poisoned his eight-year-old son Timothy with cyanide-laced candy in Texas. The case fed lasting fears of candy tampering, though random poisonings by strangers remain undocumented.
John Carpenter's Halloween
Made for about $325,000, the film grossed around $70 million and set the pattern for the modern slasher movie.
Spirit Halloween founded
Joseph Marver opened a Halloween costume store in Castro Valley, California. Acquired by Spencer Gifts in 1999, the chain now runs more than 1,500 pop-up stores each season.
Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video
The zombie-dance music video premiered on MTV and became a Halloween favorite.
Detroit's worst Devil's Night
About 810 fires were set in Detroit over October 29–31, the peak of the city's pre-Halloween arson. Volunteer Angels' Night patrols began in the 1990s.
Halloween Blizzard
–A storm buried the Upper Midwest; Duluth, Minnesota, recorded 36.9 inches of snow.
Hocus Pocus
Disney's comedy about the Sanderson sisters, three witches revived in Salem, became a Halloween cult classic.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tim Burton's stop-motion musical follows Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town.
Trunk-or-treat appears
Churches began hosting parking-lot events where children collect candy from decorated car trunks; a Baptist church in Alabama is an early example.
UNESCO recognizes the Day of the Dead
Mexico's indigenous festivity dedicated to the dead, proclaimed a masterpiece of intangible heritage in 2003, was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List.
Keene's record jack-o'-lantern display
Keene, New Hampshire, lit 30,581 jack-o'-lanterns at once, a world record.
Mexico City's first Day of the Dead parade
Inspired by the fictional procession in the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, the city launched a real parade that is now an annual event.
Halloween during COVID-19
The pandemic brought virtual parties, drive-through haunts and candy chutes; New York's Village Halloween Parade was canceled.
Seoul Halloween crowd crush
A crowd crush in the Itaewon district of Seoul during Halloween festivities killed 159 people.
Record $13.1 billion Halloween
The National Retail Federation projected record US Halloween spending of $13.1 billion, including $3.9 billion on candy.
NRF forecasts $13.5 billion for Halloween 2026
The National Retail Federation projected another record, about $115 per person, with candy, decorations and costumes each above $4 billion.
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