Halloween (or ‘alloween, as Italians pronounce it, without the “h”) isn’t a traditional Italian celebration. Usually, lots of festivals in Italy are linked to religious things, like saints days (as you’ll see a bit more about later).
But that doesn’t mean that Italians don’t celebrate Halloween at all. In fact, it’s becoming more and more popular.
Here’s what to expect (and what not to expect) if you’re in Italy around Halloween time, so you can get to know some things about Italian culture that you might not have come across before.
Useful Words and Phrases to Do with Halloween
Here are some words and phrases you might use or hear around Halloween in Italy.
| Buon Halloween! | Happy Halloween! | Bwon AHL-loh-ween |
| Il 31 ottobre | 31st October | Eel tren-TOO-noh ot-TOH-breh |
| Oggi è Halloween. | Today is Halloween. | OJ-jee eh AHL-loh-ween |
| La notte di Halloween | Halloween night | Lah NOT-teh dee AHL-loh-ween |
| Dolcetto o scherzetto? | Trick or treat? (lit. little sweet or little trick) | Dol-CHET-toh oh sker-TSET-toh |
| Fa paura! | It’s scary! | Fah pah-OO-rah |
| Fanno paura! | They’re scary! | FAHN-noh pah-OO-rah |
| Che paura! | How scary! / So scary! | Keh pah-OO-rah |
| La zucca | Pumpkin | Lah TSOOK-kah |
| Il costume | Costume | Eel koh-STOO-meh |
| La candela | Candle | Lah kan-DEH-lah |
| La strega | Witch | Lah STREH-gah |
| Il gatto nero | Black cat | Eel GAT-toh NEH-roh |
| Il fantasma | Ghost | Eel fan-TAZ-mah |
| Il ragno | Spider | Eel RAH-nyoh |
| La ragnatela | Spider web | Lah rah-nyah-TEH-lah |
| Il pipistrello | Bat | Eel pee-pee-STREL-loh |
| Il vampiro | Vampire | Eel vam-PEE-roh |
| Il diavolo | Devil | Eel DYAH-voh-loh |
| Lo scheletro | Skeleton | Loh SKEH-leh-troh |
| Il teschio | Skull | Eel TES-kyoh |
| Il cimitero | Cemetery | Eel chee-mee-TEH-roh |
| La tomba | Tomb / grave | Lah TOM-bah |
| La bara | Coffin | Lah BAH-rah |
Talking About Getting Dressed Up in Italian
There are a few different words you can use to talk about getting dressed up in Italian.
Notice how when you talk about getting dressed up as something in Italian, you use the word da.
| Indossare un costume | To wear / put on a costume | Een-dos-SAH-reh oon koh-STOO-meh |
| Vestirsi da… | To dress up as… | Veh-STEER-see dah |
| Travestirsi da… | To dress up / disguise oneself as… | Trah-veh-STEER-see dah |
| Mi vesto da fantasma. | I’m dressing up as a ghost. | Mee VES-toh dah fan-TAZ-mah |
| Mi travesto da strega. | I’m dressing up as a witch. | Mee trah-VES-toh dah STREH-gah |
| Da cosa ti travesti? | What are you dressing up as? | Dah KOH-zah tee trah-VES-tee |
Vestirsi normally means “to get dressed” in Italian, but vestirsi da + a person/character means to dress up as something.
You can also use travestirsi da which more specifically means to disguise yourself or dress up as someone or something.
The tricky bit about vestirsi and travestirsi is that you have to remember to use words like mi when you’re talking about yourself, like in the example mi vesto da fantasma , literally “I dress myself as a ghost”.
You can read more about why you need to include this little word mi works in our lesson what on earth are Italian reflexive verbs .
What to Expect Around Halloween in Italy
Trick-or-Treating
You might see some Italian children trick-or-treating around Halloween, but probably not streets full of them. It’s becoming more common, but it’s still not something that every Italian family does. And if you ask Italians whether they went trick-or-treating when they were younger, many will probably say no.
If Italian children do go trick-or-treating, you might see them knock on people’s doors and say “ dolcetto or scherzetto ” (“trick or treat!”). Or you can sometimes see them popping into shops and restaurants to ask for sweets, especially as these tend to stay open later in Italy.
Dressing Up
You might see Italian children dressed up for Halloween if they’re going trick-or-treating, but Italians tend to only wear spooky costumes (dressing up as witches and ghosts for example), rather than just any type of dress up clothes.
At Carnevale (the Italian festival around February-March time, before Lent), is when you can see other types of non-spooky costumes in Italy.
Decorating Houses
Decorating your home for Halloween isn’t a big tradition in Italy. Some Italians do put up a few decorations inside, but less often on the outside of their houses. You might also see decorations in places like shops, cafés and restaurants.
Carving Pumpkins
Italians sometimes carve pumpkins around Halloween and use them as decorations.
But interestingly, carved pumpkins aren’t something that’s come to Italy just because of Halloween. In some places, there are much older local traditions involving pumpkins and lanterns.
For example, in Orsara di Puglia, on the night between the 1st and 2nd of November, people carve faces into pumpkins and put candles inside them. The lights are linked to remembering the dead and, traditionally, the idea was that they would help guide their souls.
Halloween Events in Italy
There are a few events in Italy that you can go to around Halloween, depending which Italian region you’re visiting.
For example in Coronado (a town in Le Marche region in Italy) they have a festival called La Festa delle Streghe (literally: the festival of witches), where from October 29-31st there are things like shows, food stalls, and something called Tunnel della Paura (Tunnel of Fear), where you walk through some of the medieval streets and have scary characters jump out at you.
And in Borgo a Mozzano (a small town in Tuscany), there’s also music, street food and shows, and a procession towards the town’s famous Ponte del Diavolo (Devil’s Bridge) on October 31st.
All Saints’ Day and the Day of the Dead
There are two important religious holidays in Italy around the time of Halloween: Tutti i Santi (literally “All the Saints”) on November 1st and Il Giorno dei Morti (literally “The Day of the Dead”) on November 2nd.
Tutti i Santi , which is also known as Ognissanti (literally “each saint”), is a giorno festivo in Italy, or public holiday. So if you’re in Italy on 1st November, you’ll probably find quite a few places closed. Traditionally, it’s a religious holiday dedicated to honouring all the saints.
Il Giorno dei Morti, on the other hand, is a day meant for remembering people who have died. You might see Italians carrying flowers (traditionally chrysanthemums) to the graves of loved ones on this day. Unlike Tutti i Santi , Il Giorno dei Morti isn’t a public holiday, so shops should be open as usual.
Halloween Food
Sometimes pasticcerie (pastry shops) sell Halloween inspired food, like biscuits decorated to look like ghosts or pumpkins.
There isn’t necessarily traditional Halloween food in Italy, but there is traditional food connected with Il Giorno dei Morti. For example, in Sicily, you can find ossa dei morti (literally “bones of the dead”) which are crunchy biscuits made to look like bones. Or in Lombardy, there’s pane dei morti , a type of biscuit made with almonds and spices.
K: Ciao a tutti tutti benvenuti! Hi everyone and welcome to Learn Italian with Joy of Languages.
M: In this episode, you’ll hear some Italian words to do with Halloween. But instead of us just telling you the words, you can see how much you might know already by doing a quiz.
K: But before we get started, can we ask you a quick favore ? If you’re listening to this on your podcast app, could you click the subscribe or follow button? This way you’ll get notified when we release a new episode and you’ll help our podcast grow so we can keep making free lessons like this. Grazie!.
K: Ok, first quiz question. How do you say Halloween in Italian?
M: A - Halloween
B - ‘alloween
C - Allouino
K: The correct answer is…
M: B, ‘alloween .
K: So Italians use the same word for Halloween as we do in English, but they just follow the Italian way of pronouncing it. So the “h” is silent.
M: ‘alloween (x2)
K: Next question. What’s the Italian word for sweets?
M: A - I dolci
B - I gelati
C - I biscotti
K: The correct answer is:
M: A - I dolci
K: I dolci means “the sweets”
You might also know the word dolci already because it’s the same word as the word for desserts in Italian.
M: And from dolci we also get the phrase dolcetto o scherzetto . Trick or treat. Dolcetto o scherzetto.
K: The first word, dolcetto , literally means “little sweet”. You can sometimes add -etto to the end of the word in something Italian to make it mean little. So in this case we have dolce, Italian for one sweet, plus -etto to make it mean “little sweet”.
M: Dolcetto (x2).
K: And it’s the same with scherzetto . Scherzo means “prank” or “trick”, so scherzetto literally means “little trick ”.
M: Scherzetto (x2). So putting it together, dolcetto o scherzetto . Literally, little sweet or little trick.
K: If you’re in Italy around Halloween, you might see Italian children dressing up and going trick or treating. They knock on people’s doors or sometimes you see them going into restaurants or shops as well.
M: But although it’s becoming a bit more common, you don’t usually see streets full of children going trick or treating in Italy. And if you speak to Italians, it’s probably not something that they did when they were younger.
K: Time for the next quiz question. What’s the Italian word for pumpkin?
M: A - La fragola
B - La cipolla
C - La zucca
K: The correct answer is
M: C, La zucca
K: So the word zucca might be new to you, but there’s a similar word you might already know: zucchine , or courgettes if you’re from the UK. Zucchine literally means “little pumpkins”. As you heard before, you can add certain endings to words in Italian to make it mean “little”. So here we say -ine to zucca and it becomes zucchine . And there’s a reason the words are related: pumpkins and courgettes are actually from the same plant family.
And like in other places where you celebrate Halloween, Italians also sometimes carve pumpkins and use them for decoration.
M: Sometimes you might see the word zucca on the menu too at any point in the year, depending on the region you’re in. For example there’s risotto alla zucca , pumpkin risotto, or tortelli di zucca, a kind of pasta stuffed with pumpkin.
K: Next question. What’s the Italian word for “witch”?
M: A - La pozione
B - La magia
C - La strega
K: The correct answer is:
M: C, la strega
K: You do see spooky things around Halloween in Italy, but to answer Traci’s question from the beginning of the episode, there aren’t usually haunted houses for you to go around unless you go somewhere specific like a theme park.
M: Witches are part of Italian traditions in other ways as well. For example, there’s a strega called la befana who delivers presents to children the night before the 6th of January.
K: Last question. What’s the name for the day after Halloween in Italy, so November 1st? It’s an important public holiday.
M: A - Tutti i giorni
B - Tutti i santi
C - Tutti i colori
K: The correct answer is:
M: B, tutti i santi . It literally means all the saints. Tutti i santi . You can also call it another name, Ognissanti , which literally means “each saint”. A lot of public holidays in Italy are linked to saints or other religious things.
K: Halloween is a bit more of a modern celebration in Italy, whereas Tutti i Santi is a religious holiday that’s been around for a long time. It’s a good date to know because if you’re in Italy on that day, you’ll see lots of shops and businesses closed.
M: And the day after November 1st has a special name too: il Giorno dei Morti , or the Day of the Dead. Traditionally it was the day that you’d go and visit the graves of loved ones and leave flowers, sometimes Italians do this on November 1st as well.
K: Now that you’ve heard a few words to do with Halloween, let’s see what you can remember.
How do Italians pronounce “Halloween”?
[...]
M: ‘alloween (x2)
K: Next, how do you say “sweets”? It’s also the word you might already know for “desserts”.
[...]
M: I dolci.
K: And can you remember how to say “trick or treat”? The first word comes from dolce , “a sweet”, and the second from scherzo , “a joke”.
[...]
M: Dolcetto o scherzetto .
K: And how do you say “pumpkin”?
[...]
M: La zucca (x2)
K: And what about the Italian word for “witch”?
[...]
M: La strega (x2).
K: Last one what’s the name of the holiday on November 1st? It literally means “all the saints”.
[...]
M: Tutti i Santi (x2).
K: You’ve heard some words to do with Halloween, but there are lots more. If you go to our website, you’ll find the most common ones, so you can pick up some more Italian and understand more of what you hear around this time of year.
M: You’ll also learn more about what to expect in Italy at Halloween, like what kind of costumes Italians tend to wear, or if there are any Halloween themed events you can go to.
K: That way, you can learn some of those little details that help you understand life and culture in Italy a bit better.
M: just click the link in the description to head over to our website, or go to italian.joyoflanguages.com/podcast and search for episode 246.
M: See you next time.
K: Or as we say in Italian:
Alla prossima!
Time to check your understanding and remember everything you just learned! Below you’ll find a mini-quiz and some vocabulary cards to help it all go in.
Quiz: Halloween in Italy: Useful Words and What to Expect
How much did you learn? Find out in the quiz!
Click here to take the quiz for this episode: Halloween in Italy: Useful Words and What to Expect
Vocabulary
Buon Halloween! = Happy Halloween!
Dolcetto o scherzetto? = Trick or treat? (Lit. little sweet or little trick)
Oggi è Halloween = Today is Halloween
Mi vesto da fantasma = I’m dressing up (lit. I dress myself) as a ghost
Mi travesto da strega = I’m dressing up as a witch
Da cosa ti travesti? = What are you dressing up as?
Fa paura! = It’s scary!
Fanno paura! = They’re scary!
Che paura! = How scary!
Flashcards: Halloween in Italy: Useful Words and What to Expect
Not sure how it works? Click here to watch the tutorial
