No matter how much you love living in or visiting France, you might be disappointed during Halloween.
To be fair, Halloween is not a traditional French holiday, even though there are some French traditions that you could draw parallels with. For instance, around the same time in the Moselle region, people celebrate Rommelbootzen, also known as la nuit des betteraves grimaçantes (the Night of the Grimacing Sugar Beets). In a tradition dating back to Celtic times, locals carve sugar beets to look like human heads. Think jack o’lanterns—but a lot creepier. The idea, according to a celebrant interviewed by TF1, was originally to frighten away bad spirits during this period, when the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead fades away for a while.
Some people also compare the French holiday of La Toussaint—All Souls’ Day—to Halloween. Both are connected, what with the idea of souls (or ghosts, if you lean more Halloween), being remembered or coming back to earth. But La Toussaint, which takes place on November 1, has a far more sober feeling. It’s a day to remember and honor the souls of departed loved ones. Instead of dressing up in costumes and eating candy, families gather and visit relatives’ burial plots in the local cemeteries. Though it bears some similarities to El Día de Muertos—and you’re even likely to find decor and accessories in France inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead—La Toussaint doesn’t come with the same colorful trimmings and celebratory energy.
Do People Celebrate Halloween in France?
Halloween as we know it really has its roots in Anglo-Saxon culture. It was first celebrated in the UK and Ireland, and was brought to other countries by immigrants from those places. But the U.S. is where the idea really took off. If you’re an American, nothing in France can compare to Halloween in America.
In the 1990s, there was an attempt to make France a country that celebrates Halloween, American-style. This led to some cool events, like a generation of French kids going trick-or-treating for the first time, and a temporary installation of more than 8,000 pumpkins in the Trocadéro gardens in 1997.
But celebrating Halloween on a grand scale ultimately failed in France. Most experts chalk it up to the fact that the holiday was seen as too commercial by a majority of French people. They aren’t wrong; that extravagant pumpkin installation, for instance, was actually a marketing stunt by France Télécom, which was promoting a Halloween-themed mobile phone.
Halloween in France vs. the U.S.
Nevertheless, not everyone has given up on Halloween in France. You might find that your local grocery store is suddenly decked out in Halloween decorations, and has large promotional tubs of Halloween-themed sweets from European companies like Haribo displayed in a corner… even though there’s not really any trick-or-treating going on here anymore. Nor is candy popular at the occasional adult Halloween party you might be invited to; French kids (like all kids) are candy fiends, but French adults are usually fairly averse to the sweet stuff, as I learned the hard way when setting up my own Halloween parties here. While our guests always came ready to have fun (and maybe even enjoy a good fright from a scary movie), they rarely wore costumes, and barely ate anything from the many bowls of candy I’d put out.
You’ll likely get more of an autumnal than Halloween-y vibe in France… unless you actively seek out more. If you do, you’ll discover that there are a lot of Halloween-themed events and celebrations around the country, especially in Paris and the Île-de-France region, and in venues geared towards American expats. For instance, my favorite used English bookstore in Paris, Bill & Rosa’s Book Room, hosts a Halloween-themed children’s story hour. In central Paris, meanwhile, The American Library has an annual Halloween Extravaganza (usually held the weekend closest to the holiday) that features events like kids’ trick-or-treating at local businesses, and a silent disco and costume contest for adults.
Plenty of Halloween celebrations in France take place at French venues, too. A good number of these are relegated to local bars or nightclubs, or even escape rooms (many of which already have a spooky theme).
2024 Halloween Events in France
This year, a number of Paris museums and monuments will be holding Halloween-themed events, including a ghost hunt at the Hôtel de la Marine, a murder mystery night at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, and a Gates of Hell soirée at the Musée Rodin, with spooky performances related to the works of the famed French sculptor. Not to be outdone, many of Paris’s bateau mouche companies, like Vedettes du Pont Neuf, will be offering spooky cruises down the Seine.
If you’re not a museum or boat person, you might head to a theme park for your Halloween fix. Disneyland Paris, with its American roots, fittingly gets into Halloween every year with decorations and events. Its French rivals Parc Astérix and La Mer de Sable, in the Oise, also hold Halloween festivities.
Throughout France, you’ll find spooky castle visits (although, you could argue that depending on its overall ambiance and history, any visit to a castle could be spooky), and other Halloween-themed events, as well. For instance, in the Île-de-France region, several branches of Les Fermes de Gally will be hosting a pumpkin festival where visitors can pick and carve pumpkins.
Alternatively, you can run from zombies in the Pas-de-Calais town of Maisnil-Les-Ruitz. For a more low-key Halloween experience, there’s the city of Limoges’s family-oriented annual festivities, including a Halloween train—a mini tourist train decked out in Halloween regalia that takes families around the city.
All this means that though you may find Halloween fans haunting the streets of France (particularly in Paris), you’re unlikely to see a lot of them in costume. I’ve found that most French people don’t tend to go all-out when it comes to Halloween costumes. The ones who do dress up usually opt for something pretty tame (cat ears, maybe a cowboy hat, that sort of thing), or go for more of a spooky Goth look.
At the end of the day, Halloween is not a part of life in France in a particularly pervasive way. Offices and schools won’t typically be decorated for the holiday. Some people might throw Halloween parties, but these aren’t extremely common. Jack o’lanterns do not grace people’s doorsteps or apartment hallways.
Trick-or-Treating in France
The biggest difference between Halloween in France and Halloween in the U.S. is that in France, there are no trick-or-treaters—at least not on a large scale. There might be small groups of costume-wearing kids roaming the streets in a few regions of the country, but for the most part, trick-or-treating is not something that’s a part of Halloween in France. It had a bit of a moment here in the ‘90s, but since then, it’s become rare or even non-existent, depending on where you live.
Here in Paris, there’s a very small chance you’ll hear your doorbell ring on Halloween night. You’ll open it to find a few bashful-looking teenagers who are dressed in something that barely qualifies as a costume—say, a pair of devil horns added to their regular clothes. You can tell they’ve seen people trick-or-treating on TV or in a movie and want to try their luck and get some candy. Even though the experience pales in comparison with the real thing, I can’t help but feel a rush of nostalgia and joy on the rare occasions that this happens. The poor, intrepid French trick-or-treaters are not prepared for my happy grin and chitchat. But at least they get some candy out of it.
Alysa Salzberg is an American writer, worrier, teacher, travel planner, and cookie enthusiast who’s lived in Paris, France, for nearly two decades. Author of Hearts at Dawn, a historical fantasy novel set during the 1870-1871 Siege of Paris, she often shares things she loves about life and history in the City of Light on her blog at https://alysasalzberg.medium.com/ and on Instagram @lamarquisedecarabas.
