An index of tropes related to the three-day festive season of Allhallowtide, which includes (both Christian and secularized versions of) holidays such as Halloween and the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos).
This is a sub-index of Holiday Tropes. Compare and contrast this index with Christmas Tropes, Disguise Tropes, Horror Tropes, and Who Was That Masked Index?, the latter three of which can overlap with this.
Tropes:
- Becoming the Costume: A magic spell that transforms people into whomever they're dressed up as. When this happens on Halloween, expect the victims of this curse to be turned into all kinds of monsters, fictional characters, or famous persons.
- Calacas: Skeletons representing dead people in Mexico's Day of the Dead.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: On Halloween and other special occasions, everyone assumes that your inhuman appearance is just a well-made costume.
- Halloween Cosplay: Rather than just buying or making a generic costume, someone cosplays as a specific character on Halloween.
- Halloween Costume Characterization: A person's choice of costume represents their personality.
- Halloween Songs: Music and songs about Halloween.
- Halloweentown: An entire setting that's themed around Halloween.
- Halloween Trickery: On Halloween, people do mischievous things, like pull pranks on others.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Horror plots happen on Halloween or another holiday.
- Human Jack-O-Lantern: A jack-o'-lantern made from someone's head.
- I Got a Rock: Halloween trick-or-treaters get something other than candy.
- Monster Mash: A Massive Multiplayer Crossover between iconic monsters from the world of classic horror fiction, usually including the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster.
- Not a Mask: A strange face is assumed to be a mask but isn't.
- Pumpkin Person: Monsters with jack-o-lanterns for heads.
- Razor Apples: When Halloween candy and treats get spiked with poison, razor blades, or something else that's harmful.
- Sexy Whatever Outfit: A sexy Halloween costume modeled on something that isn't sexy on its own.
- Spirit of Halloween: A character who is the embodiment of Halloween, similar to Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.
- Stingy Jack: A character from Irish folklore who tricked himself out of Heaven and Hell alike, and was doomed to wander the world forever with a turnip-lantern to light his way. Is the alleged origin of the jack-o-lantern.
- Too Old to Trick-or-Treat: An older child or teenager decides or is told that they have outgrown trick-or-treating.
- Your Costume Needs Work: When the real deal is mistaken for a cheap Halloween costume.