Halloween in France

Halloween in France: Pumpkins, Ghosts, and a Cultural Identity Crisis

Every October, pumpkins glow in shop windows, children dress as witches, and supermarkets try to convince France that Halloween is a national tradition.

But is it really?

What if Halloween in France wasn’t a homegrown celebration at all — but a ghostly guest, imported, rejected, revived, and still not fully at ease?

What if it revealed something deeper about France itself: its attachment to tradition, its resistance to Americanisation, and its eternal struggle between solemnity and fun?

From the pumpkin boom of the 1990s to the Catholic backlash, from classroom costume parades to the TikTok generation’s rediscovery of the spooky season, this 5,000-word cultural investigation traces the strange, funny, and revealing journey of a festival that never quite fit in.

French writer Pierre explores how Halloween in France rose from marketing campaigns, nearly vanished in the 2000s, and then crept back from the dead — all while competing with its pious neighbour, La Toussaint.

With humour, anecdotes, and a touch of sociology, this story uncovers how a single October night exposes a nation’s complicated dance with global culture.

🕵️‍♀️ Inside this autumn investigation:

– How a Celtic festival became a billion-dollar American ritual (and then crossed the Channel)

– France’s great pumpkin boom — and the corporate campaigns that launched it

– The backlash: Church, parents, and critics who said “Non, merci!”

– Halloween in schools: costumes, vocabulary, and secular debates

– Why French trick-or-treating never really took off (gates, intercoms, and grumpy neighbours)

– The zombie comeback: from Instagram filters to urban parties

This is more than a story about sweets and costumes. It’s about how France negotiates with modernity, one pumpkin at a time.

📬 Originally published on Substack for paying subscribers, this in-depth essay is now available as a beautifully formatted downloadable PDF for just £3 (approx. $4 USD) — a small price to unlock the secrets, controversies, and curiosities of France’s most reluctant celebration.