Halloween in America: Costumes, Candy, Costs for Night of Fright

October 31 is Halloween. But many Americans have been preparing for the holiday for weeks. And businesses are hoping for good profits from Halloween purchases.

The National Retail Federation (N.R.F.) is the largest U.S. trade group representing sellers of material goods. It expects total Halloween spending in 2024 to reach about $11.6 billion. That sounds like a healthy amount, but it would be a drop from the year before. The N.R.F. says total Halloween spending in 2023 was a record-setting $12.2 billion.

So, you might wonder: What are Americans buying for Halloween and how do they celebrate the holiday?

Halloween traditions in America are linked to Celtic beliefs in ancient Britain. The Celts believed that spirits of the dead would return to their homes on October 31, the day of the autumn feast. Celts would build huge fires to frighten away any evil spirits that might return.

People from Scotland and Ireland brought these ideas with them when they came to America. Some believed that spirits played tricks on people on the last night of October.

In modern America, the holiday mostly belongs to children. After dark, children wear special clothing, called costumes. They often appear as frightening creatures like vampires, ghosts and witches. The children walk around their neighborhoods, knocking on doors of homes. When someone answers a door, the children yell “trick or treat.” If the people in the homes do not give them a sweet treat, the children may play a trick on them.

Some of the purchases people make for Halloween include candy and costumes. This year, the N.R.F. expects the superhero character Spider-Man to be the most popular children's costume.

Children are not the only Americans in costumes on Halloween, however. Adults also dress up in costumes and attend Halloween parties, parades and other events. These celebrations often include costume competitions, with prizes for the most frightening, inventive or humorous costumes.

Overall, the N.R.F. reports, total spending on costumes for Halloween 2024 is expected to reach a total of $3.8 billion. It says buyers will spend $3.5 billion on Halloween candy.

Americans also enjoy decorating their homes for Halloween.

People hang fake skeletons, witches, spiders and other scary things around their doors and from trees and bushes. They also cut scary faces into pumpkins and light them to create a strange glow.

Some people do a little decorating, others do a lot, and still others do none at all. But, the N.R.F. says researchers estimate Americans will spend about $3.8 billion dollars to dress up their houses for Halloween this year.

I'm Caty Weaver.

Caty Weaver wrote this story for VOA Learning English.

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knock - v. to strike something hard

character - n. someone who appears in a book, movie, etc.: a representation of an individual personality in a fictional or dramatic work

decorate - v. to make more attractive by adding something that is beautiful or becoming

fake - adj. not true, real, or genuine

glow - n. to shine with or as if with an intense heat