UK town celebrating Halloween today - and why it's different every year

27 October 2023 , 14:13

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Halloween is celebrated on the last Friday of October in one UK town, instead of on the 31st (Image: Getty Images)

Most people know that Halloween is celebrated on October 31 every year - but in one UK town, people like to start the celebrations a bit earlier.

Halloween as we know it today is the result of many different traditions combining over the years, including age-old Celtic festivals and All Hallows' Eve from the Christian faith.

While many features of the big day now look largely the same all over the world, Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, Scotland stands out by marking the day on the last Friday of October instead.

Dubbed 'Killieween' by locals, the tradition ensures that there is no school or work in the morning for residents, allowing everyone to party into the late hours.

It means that Killiween will be proudly celebrated on Friday 27 October this year, four days before the rest of the world on Tuesday October 31. According to the Daily Record, different theories exist as to how Killieween originally came about, and some believe it goes all the way back to Halloween's Gaelic origins. Others however say it is to do with Kilmarnock's industrial past, as the town was a former centre for locomotive manufacturing and textiles. With the last Friday of each month traditionally being payday, celebrating Halloween on this day meant that more of the town's residents would have the cash to celebrate. More fanciful local legend also says that witches were burnt on the last Friday before All Hallows' Eve.

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Halloween traditions have their own unique history in Scotland, where customs have been influenced by the old Celtic festival of Samhain. Young people have traditionally taken part in a game called "guising", where they would dress up in costume and accept offerings from households. They would sing a song, recite a poem, tell a joke or perform another sort of "trick" before collecting their treat. The treats often consisted of fruit, nuts or coins. It is older than the US version of 'Trick or treating', which has in recent decades become a more popular part of Halloween celebrations in the UK and across the Western world.

Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas