If your heart beats orange and black, it's never too early to start planning your Halloween celebration.
From curating a creative Halloween costume to taking the decorations down from the attic, there's no time like the present to get the party underway.
With that in mind, you may be wondering, “When is Halloween in 2024?”
Naturally, your first priority is to know what day of the week Halloween lands on this year, along with other pertinent information like what day did the spooky holiday fall on last year and when will Halloween be in 2025? Because while you're thinking about this year, it doesn't hurt to to know the scoop for next year, too.
Of course, we've got all those answers, as well as a lot of other Halloween details like why we celebrate this macabre holiday, when Halloween will land on a weekend again (spoiler: you won't have to wait too long) and what an ancient Celtic tradition has to do with our commemoration of October 31.
Armed with all these helpful Halloween facts, the only thing you need to worry about is making a list of all the scary horror movies you plan to watch this October and choosing a design for this year's inspired Jack-O'-Lantern carving contest.
When is Halloween in 2024?
This year, Halloween falls on Thursday, October 31, 2024.
While many people wish Halloween would happen on a weekend, this year the spooky holiday falls on a Thursday. However, if you play your cards right, you can celebrate the weekend before, then keep the party going right on through Nov. 1.
With the holiday quickly approaching, there's no time like the present to start planning your costume and choosing which Halloween treats to hand out to trick-or-treaters or what frightfully fun cocktails to brew up for all the goblins attending this year's Halloween bash.
Is Halloween on the same day every year?
Though the day of the week it falls on changes every year, Halloween itself always falls on October 31.
So, for example, in 2023, Halloween was on a Tuesday. We already know that this year it's on Thursday. You may be curious why the holiday isn't on a Wednesday.
Here's the deal: Since 2024 is a leap year, Halloween was pushed out an extra day. And that's great news because next year, in 2025, it means the spooky holiday lands on a Friday, which is something to celebrate!
Fun fact: The last time Halloween fell on Friday was way back in 2014. After 2025, Halloween won't be on a Friday again until 2031.
The history of Halloween
Halloween has a long, storied history that’s as full of spirit and intrigue as the holiday itself.
It originated with the Celts, who lived two centuries ago in the areas now known as Ireland, England and northern France. On October 31, they celebrated the festival of Samhain to mark the end of summer before the new year started on November 1.
In other words, it was a time to party before the cold weather and snow arrived.
But here's where the haunts of Halloween come into play. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, ghosts had the ability to return to the earth. As a result, they wore costumes to ward off evil spirits, made bonfires and tried to predict the future through fortune-telling.
Once the Romans conquered areas of the Celts, they began to borrow some of the Samhain traditions like bobbing for apples. The holiday continued to live on in various forms through Christian cultures.
Why we celebrate Halloween
Eventually, European immigrants brought the holiday along with them to the United States. It arrived in its near-modern form in the 1840s when Irish immigrants came to our shores to escape the Irish Potato Famine.
Nowadays, Halloween is celebrated in the United States, Ireland, Italy, England, Mexico, Portugal and other countries around the world.
While we may not necessarily wear costumes with the intention of warding off evil spirits, we’ve developed our own modern-day Halloween traditions, like queuing up scary movies, decking out our houses with spooky decorations and competing in costume contests.
