Known as ‘Alla Helgons Dag‘, in Sweden Halloween is celebrated from October 31 until November 6: it begins at schools’ autumn break and, as with many other holidays, it has an eve which is either celebrated or becomes a shortened working day. Halloween has been celebrated in Sweden since the 1990s, and it established rapidly because adults felt a need: by the time of Halloween, Sweden is shrouded in darkness, while long working weeks stretched away endlessly from the summer holiday, because there are no public holidays or extended weekends in the calendar until All Saints’ Day. Nevertheless, Halloween is mainly celebrated by children and teenagers: they go to fancy parties wearing costumes and holding light lanterns and walk through the streets to ‘scare’ the neighborhood. Many pubs and restaurants have Halloween parties and decorate their premises with scary items and pumpkins: its celebration has led to an upswing in pumpkins growing on the island of Öland in the southern Baltic Sea, home to the giant gourds.
Read here for Halloween 2023 events in Sweden
For more details about Halloween in Sweden, listen to this episode of the ‘Sweden in focus’ podcast
