After a few years of trendy popularity, Halloween seems to have vanished from Sweden.

The day is Anglo-American, not a Swedish tradition at all. It caught on for a few years, but largely apparently as an excuse for people to throw costume parties. Treat or treating has always been a bit strange here, as even when kids did come, they usually came the wrong day.

This is probably because All Saint’s Day is a public holiday in Sweden, but not celebrated on November 1. Instead it is on the following Saturday (which basically means few people get the holiday off, but under the Swedish system you get to go home from work after 1:00 PM on the Friday, “work permitting”). So trick or treaters often came on the Friday before the public holiday of All Saint’s Day. But when they were coming, they could show up any time between a week before and a week after the real Halloween, October 31.

Back then the custom was denounced by the Christian fundamentalists, the same people who denounced Harry Potter for promoting witchcraft (had they actually the books, they would have seen they are actually anti-racist). This was also weird because Sweden actually has a traditional trick or treating day on Holy Thursday, when kids dress up as witches. The fundamentalists have never criticized that custom.

The gift shop that for the past several years has had Halloween themed items, this year went straight to the Advent/Christmas stuff.

The last two years we haven’t had a single trick or treater. Imagine my surprise when this year two kids showed up on October 30, a day early!

Halloween update: This year we actually got six kids trick or treating (although one was a repeat from the night before)! Never say never…