Halloween in Spain: Spanish words and phrases
The Spanish words and phrases for Halloween in Spain and Todos los Santos: costume parties, visiting graves, roast chestnuts and huesos de santo. Halloween is new in Spain and mostly a night out for younger people. The first of November is old, quiet and for the family.
Also: Halloween in South America · Day of the Dead in Mexico
Every phrase is spoken with a voice from Spain where your device has one, whatever the Latin America / Spain switch is set to elsewhere.
Words you will see
Two calendars share these two days. Disfraz and calabaza belong to the imported party, Todos los Santos and huesos de santo to the old holiday, and the bakery window tells you which one a town cares about more.
Things to say
Disfrazarse de is the useful pattern here: de introduces what you turn into, so the same verb covers any costume. And ir a plus a verb, as in vamos a llevar flores, is the everyday way to talk about plans.
Getting a costume, and getting in
Shopping and getting in are the same few frames as anywhere: busco, I am looking for, ¿tenéis?, do you have, and ¿cuánto cuesta?, how much. Hay que plus a verb is the one to add for rules: it means one has to, with no person at all.
Signs and announcements
Festivo is the word to know: a public holiday, when most shops shut. Signs say cerrado por festivo, closed for the holiday, and the same word appears on bus and train timetables, where festivos run like Sundays.
Three things worth knowing
Halloween on the 31st is costumes, parties and bars, mostly for teenagers and people in their twenties, and it has spread quickly over the last few decades. Todos los Santos on the 1st is the old day: families clean the graves of their relatives and leave flowers, often chrysanthemums.
Don Juan Tenorio, a play from 1844 by José Zorrilla, has scenes in a graveyard and is traditionally staged or broadcast around 1 November.
In Galicia, Samaín is a revived festival that claims Celtic roots and carved turnips and pumpkins. Galicia also has the magosto, an autumn feast of roast chestnuts.
Dates and customs on this page were checked on 9 October 2026. Event dates and local rules change from year to year.
Halloween in Spain is a costume party for the young. The next day, Todos los Santos, is an old public holiday for visiting graves. What to say at each.
Halloween in Spain, and the quiet holiday the next day →The 90 day course builds these phrases into real conversation, one short lesson a day. Days 1 to 7 need no account.
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