28% of Britons will celebrate Halloween this year, but the public overall tends to prefer Bonfire Night
It’s Halloween and spooky season is upon us. Houses up and down the country have been decorated with cobwebs, skeletons and jack-o’-lanterns in preparation for a night of parties and children trick-or-treating.
But although the popularity of Halloween in Britain has grown in the last few decades, it has not won everybody over, and the public are divided in how they see the festival. For the third of Britons (34%) with a positive opinion of Halloween, three in ten (31%) have a negative view, while another third (34%) see it neither positively nor negatively.
Reflecting the festival’s growth over time, younger generations tend to see the festival more favourably. A majority of 18-24 year olds (54%) have a positive opinion of Halloween, compared to only one in six (16%) who dislike it. By comparison, with over 65s, just one in eight (12%) see Halloween in a good light, against half (48%) who have a negative view of it.
As such, actively celebrating Halloween remains a minority activity, with only 28% of Britons saying they will do so this year, while two-thirds of the public (66%) will not.
How do Britons celebrate Halloween?
Of those who will celebrate Halloween in some way, the most common activity will be giving treats to trick-or-treaters, at 55%. Pumpkin carving is also common, with 44% of those celebrating expecting to make a jack-o’-lantern, while four in ten (41%) will watch a scary film to mark the occasion.
On top of this, around a quarter of those celebrating Halloween will be dressing up in a costume (28%), hosting or attending a Halloween party (25%) or going trick-or-treating (23%).
How old is too old to go trick-or-treating?
Like many activities largely associated with children, there is a question of ‘how old is too old’ when it comes to trick-or-treating.
Six in ten Britons (62%) feel that you can be too old to go trick-or-treating and identify a specific age at which you become too old. Just over a quarter of Britons (27%) feel you have reached this point by the age of 12, with this reaching half of Britons (49%) by the age of 15.
Nonetheless, one in six Britons (18%) feel you can never be too old to go trick-or-treating.
There is some variation by age, with 33% of over 50s feeling that you become too old to go trick-or-treating by the age of 12, compared to only 12% of 18-24 year olds. By contrast, one third of 18-24 year olds (32%) feel you can never be too old to go trick-or-treating, compared to only 14% of over 65s.
Why will many Britons not be celebrating Halloween?
Of course, two-thirds of Britons (66%) will not be celebrating Halloween this year, and have their reasons for not doing so.
Asked to give in their own words the main reason why they won’t be marking Halloween, with answers then categorised by YouGov’s AI-powered Topic Quantifier model, the most common answer was simple disinterest, which is true of 26% of those not celebrating.
Some aren’t necessarily rejecting Halloween. For one in five of those not celebrating (20%), the fact they don’t have children or that theirs have grown up is key to why they aren’t participating in festivities, while 7% of non-celebrators say they are just busy that day or haven’t made plans.
There are, though, some with more pointed criticisms. One in ten of those not celebrating Halloween (10%) say they avoid it primarily because it’s an Americanism, with a further 8% not celebrating it for being too commercialised and 2% seeing it as a plain waste of time and money.
Additionally, 4% of those not celebrating Halloween say they mainly don’t do so because it goes against their religious beliefs, with a further 3% stating they don’t agree with what the festival represents. Another 3% say they shun the festival for its encouragement of antisocial behaviour.
Halloween vs Guy Fawkes Night
Perhaps unsurprisingly given its minority appeal, Halloween has also not managed to supplant Bonfire Night as the top autumn festival for Britons, with 44% of the public preferring Guy Fawkes Night, compared to just one in six (16%) who favour Halloween. One in five Britons (21%) say they don’t like either event, while 15% say they like both equally.
Although younger Britons are more likely to say that they prefer Halloween (21% of 18-24 year olds vs 7% of over 65s), the choice between the two events is not a generational divide, with four in ten 18-24 year olds (39%) and half of over 65s (48%) still favouring Bonfire Night.
Instead, the largest difference between age groups is older Britons being more likely to say they don’t like either festival (36% of over 65s vs 10% of 18-24 year olds).
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