When I first moved to Italy back in 2008, one of the biggest culture shocks I experienced was the general apathy towards Halloween. I originally come from Canada, a country that like the USA enjoys celebrating Halloween as much as Christmas and Easter, so it was a surprise to see October 31st come and go as if Halloween didn’t exist!
I later learned that Halloween is more of a North American celebration than a European one – though in recent years, it has become increasingly popular even in Italy.
What do Italians call Halloween?
Italians use the very same word – Halloween! That being said, they tend to pronounce it without the word-initial h because this sound doesn’t exist in Italian.
Halloween
Do Italians “Trick or Treat”?
Yes, they do! Trick-or-treat in Italian translates to dolcetto o scherzetto which literally means little treat or little trick. These days, kids love to dress up and collect candy from their neighbours. In fact, when I used to work in a nursery school in Italy, we’d take the kids out after lunch and walk from shop to shop asking for treats.
Dolcetto o scherzetto
Trivia: Children in Italy usually dress up as evil characters such as witches, devils, monsters and vampires at Halloween. This is because there is already another important (and very traditional) Italian festival in February where dressing up plays a huge role: Carnevale! At this time, kids dress up in a variety of costumes, from their favourite superheroes to knights, princesses and fairies. It would be considered strange to dress up as a good character on Halloween!
Italian Halloween Vocabulary
Below are some of the most important Halloween words you will need to learn to talk about this skin-crawling time of year in Italian!
Il trentuno di ottobre
Translation: October 31st
Casa infestata
Translation: haunted house
Caramella
Translation: candy
Spaventoso
Translation: scary
Costume
Translation: costume
Zombie
Translation: zombie
Mummia
Translation: mummy
Italian Halloween Phrases
Mi fa paura!
Translation: It scares me!
Bù!
Translation: Boo!
Mi sono travestito/travestita da X.
Translation: I’m dressed up as X.
Ci vogliamo mascherare da X.
Translation: We want to dress up as X.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
