For most Americans, the word “Halloween” conjures images of costumes, candy and haunted decorations. At Dartmouth, it is a beloved and highly anticipated holiday, featuring festive activities: costume parties held in dorms or fraternities, group movie marathons and pumpkin carving contests.
Although celebrations across the United States seem fairly standardized across states, Halloween traditions look a little different around the world. As a result, international students, including exchange students like myself who only attend Dartmouth for a limited time, often experience new events and even culture shocks when Halloween at Dartmouth rolls around.
Nora Chen, an exchange student from Tokyo, said to celebrate Halloween in Japan, people gather in places like Shibuya and Shinjuku — popular areas in Tokyo known for their nightlife and shopping, “similar to Times Square” — to party during Halloween.
“Young people will go to popular stations, buy drinks from 7-Eleven convenience stores and just hang out or go clubbing together,” Chen said.
According to Chen, Halloween transforms the city streets of Tokyo into a colorful blend of anime-inspired and Western costumes. She also said that the desire for individuality in costume choice is different in Japan compared to America, adding that dressing up as anime characters is “really popular.”
“People also dress up in fun, scary outfits, but it feels less about sexiness and more about creativity,” she said. “I think in Japan, people put more effort into their [face] makeup rather than having elaborate outfits.”
However, those in Japan also celebrate Halloween in other ways beyond the classic Halloween nightlife scene. For example, Tokyo Disneyland hosts “Disney Halloween,” where there’s “seasonal Halloween decor” and some visitors choose to dress up in costume, according to Chen.
“The haunted house [at Disneyland] becomes very crowded, and people line up for a long time,” Chen said. “It’s fun, vibrant and brings out a unique Japanese twist to Halloween.”
Despite Tokyo’s vibrant Halloween celebrations, Chen said that other cities in Japan don’t necessarily celebrate the holiday “that much,” as it’s considered a “Western thing.”
“It’s still a lot of foreigners who are dressing up [in Tokyo],” Chen said. “Halloween is still a newer tradition in Japan.”
In other countries, the holiday is almost entirely nonexistent. When he first encountered spooky festivities at Dartmouth, Tayeb Mohammadi ’26, who is from Kabul, Afghanistan, remembered thinking “What … is Halloween?” He later Googled the holiday, because, according to Mohammadi, most people in Afghanistan “don’t know what Halloween is.”
“Changing your outfit in a scary way would be weird,” he said.
Mohammadi also added that the “lack of internet in Afghanistan” is a possible explanation as to why Halloween is not widely celebrated.
After living in Afghanistan growing up, Mohammadi moved to Turkey, where the holiday in his experience is similarly not widely celebrated, he said. Only “very few people would know” of it, Mohammadi explained.
Victoria Cubina Th ’25, who is from Barcelona, Spain, said at home, Halloween is somewhat present but not incredibly popular.
“It really depends on the family and where you live,” Cubina said. “Some families bring their kids with costumes and go around [trick-or-treating]. It’s up to the individual to decide whether they want to get involved or not.”
Her Halloween experience in America and at Dartmouth, by contrast, surprised her because of how much more “serious” and “crazy” the costumes and celebrations are stateside.
“A lot of people say Halloween is one of their favorite holidays, but I had never even thought of it as a holiday,” she said.
In her first year at Thayer, Cubina said that her friends told her to pick “three separate costumes” for weekend parties. She explained that she felt costumes are taken “so seriously” in the United States compared to Spain, as everyone “loves” Halloween in America.
Elizabeth Cervantes Roman ’27, who is Mexican-American and was born and raised in Arizona, observes Día de los Muertos. Also known as Day of the Dead, Cervantes Roman’s family celebrates the “widespread” holiday from Nov. 1 to Nov. 2, according to Cervantes Roman. The purpose is for families to reunite with the dead, welcoming back their deceased relatives’ souls over food, drink and celebration.
“We have altars we call ofrendas [in Spanish],” Cervantes Roman said. “They’re tables with photos of the people you care about that passed away, and you usually put their favorite meal items on the table.”
According to Cervantes Roman, typical meals during this holiday include sodas and conchas, a sweet Mexican bread. A common decoration is “cempasúchil flowers,” which are marigolds known as flor de muerto and translate to “flowers of the dead.” Cervantes Roman added that, unlike Halloween celebrations in the United States, Día de los Muertos has less of a focus on trivial costumes. Instead, some individuals will dress up as a way of signifying loved ones who have passed.
“Typically families don’t dress up, but there are larger events like parades and festivals where people do dress up as skeletons, paint their faces and put on beautiful dresses to signify the dead,” Cervantes Roman said.
When Cervantes Roman came to Dartmouth, she was impressed by Dartmouth’s inclusivity during Halloween.
“I felt excited to see my culture represented here,” Cervantes Roman said. “There were small items placed to remember [the dead] and photos of individuals that people love.”
Cervantes Roman said while “dressing up” for Halloween in the United States can be “very fun,” she found that celebrations for Día de los Muertos in Mexico have “more intention.”
“It’s more focused on remembering the people who have sacrificed and the people you love so much. It acknowledges the individual and keeps them alive,” she said.
