Halloween Barcelona 2024

Barcelona Halloween parties & events

Event date:
31st October 2024

Event location:
Barcelona night clubs & hotels

Hashtags:
#halloweenbarcelona

Description:
What's on for Barcelona's Halloween celebrations? Although Halloween is not a Spanish or Catalan tradition, the Halloween tradition is very popular in Spain and Barcelona. Barcelona celebrates Halloween in the same way as other European cities with many Halloween fancy dress parties featuring ghouls, ghosts, witches and zombies. Kids in Spain also go out and 'trick or treat', which is called 'Truco o Trato' in Spanish.

See our Spanish-English Halloween word list further down this page for more useful Halloween phrases in Spanish.  You can buy Halloween outfits and costumes in Barcelona at shops at costume shops. For carving Jack o'Lanterns out of pumpkins see this handy step-by-step pumpkin carving guide and read about the origins of halloween pumpkins.

Barcelona Halloween Parties 

The day after Halloween - 1st November - is a public holiday Todos los Santos - All Saints and so there are many halloween parties in the days up to Halloween and on 31st October Halloween night at all top Barcelona clubs including top nights clubs like Pacha, CDLC, Opium, Shoko, Catwalk and Sala Apolo to name just a few. To find all the top clubs in town visit our Barcelona clubs guide.

Barcelona Halloween Events

Top theme park PortAventura World, located one hour south of Barcelona, has fun Halloween activities in 2024. The Spanish village Poble Espanyol has a Halloween event for families and children called Creepy Extreme where visitors must survive a nightmarish world and try to get out of the Creepy Houses alive.

Party shops

Barcelona party costume shops

Public holiday 1st November

The day after Halloween is 1st November which is a public holiday in Spain called Todos los Santos or Tots Sants in the Catalan language. Both means 'All Saints.' On 1st November you can enjoy the Catalan tradition called La Castanyada and on All Saints' Day it is a tradition is to attend church services in honour of Catholic saints and martyrs and also to visit family graves to place flowers, wreaths and candles.

Barcelona cemeteries

Barcelona has nine cemeteries - which are Montjuïc cemetery (the biggest,) Poblenou cemetery, Sant Andreu, Horta (the smallest), Sant Gervasi, Sarrià, Les Corts, Sants and Collserola. On All Saints day - Tot Sants 1/11 the Barcelona cemeteries extend their opening times from 08.00 until 18.00. There are flower stalls at the cemetary gates and sometimes a special shuttle bus service is available from Plaça d'Espanya to Cementiri de Montjuïc. Barcelona's biggest and main cemetery.

At Montjuic cemetery the Barcelona Cemeteries association (CBSA) usually invites the public to an open day event to visit the Montjuic cemetery museum and its collection of funeral carriages.  At Poblenou cemetery, in the past there was a partial performance of the play Don Juan Tenorio by Jose Zorrilla in Spanish in the week before halloween, however we have been unable to confirm if this performance is a continuing tradition. The Don Juan Tenorio play features scenes with tombs and ghosts and is traditionally performed in Spanish theatres on All Saints Day. 

Origins of Halloween

Although the modern Halloween is based on traditions from the USA, the origins of Halloween can actually be found in Celtic Britain. The Celts lived in the British Isles during ancient times and worshipped the gods of nature. There were two important festivals in the Celtic calendar, Beltane and Samhain. Samhain was pronounced something like 'Sow-win,' which might be origin for the modern word Halloween.

Beltane celebrated the beginning of summer. Samhain celebrated the start of winter, and was the first day of the year on the Celtic calendar. The festival of Samhain started on October 31st and finished on November 1st. The Celts were frightened of winter because the days were short and cold, and the nights were very long - they associated winter with death and evil spirits.

The Celts believed that on the night of October 31st the spirits of the dead rose from the tombs and the Celts made big fires to scare the ghosts away. They also wore scary costumes and played games on October 31st to bring good luck for the year. Nuts and apples were eaten and were considered lucky foods. 

The colours of Halloween are also of Celtic origin. Black was the colour of winter and long nights. Orange was the colour of the harvest. The black cat is another symbol of Halloween because the Celts believed that a black cat had special powers.

Origin of Halloween name

The word Halloween or Hallowe'en is of Christian origin and is a term equivalent to "All Hallows Eve". The word hallowe[']en comes from the Scottish form of All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day). "Even" is the Scots term for "eve" or "evening", and is contracted to e'en or een; so in this way All Hallows Even became Hallowe'en. 

Useful Spanish Halloween words

Halloween - Noche de Brujas
Pumpkin - La calabaza
Carved pumpkins - calabazas talladas
Lantern - farol
Vampires - vampiros
Ghosts - fantasmas
Witches - brujas
Zombies - zombies
Skeletons - esqueletos
Mummy - momie
Dress up - disfrazarse
Trick or Treat - truco o trato
Sweets and treats - dulces y golosinas

Origins halloween pumpkins
Wikipedia Halloween
Halloween make-up

Happy Halloween Barcelona!

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