It’s October and time for Halloween

Although the origin of Halloween is found in Celtic Ireland the scary tradition is now a worldwide phenomenon. We have therefore asked our panel members in the Nordics as well as in Ireland how they will be celebrating Halloween.

Like Valentine's Day and Saint Patrick's Day the Nordic countries have also taken in Halloween and thus you find decorations and costumes in stores and supermarkets throughout October. That being said, not all of Userneeds' Nordic panel members have embraced the tradition. In other words, more than 70 percent in both Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland say that they do not celebrate Halloween.

For the 30 percent in each country that do celebrate Halloween carving out pumpkins is the most popular activity in Denmark and Sweden, where respectively 40 and 26 percent have chosen this option. In Finland the best way of celebrating Halloween seems to be by watching horror movies (28 percent), however attending costume parties is also favored by many (24 percent). In Norway 30 percent of the people that actually celebrate Halloween have chosen "Going to costume parties" as well, which is thus the most popular answer for the Norwegians.

Trick-or-treating is chosen by 3 percent in Finland, 8 percent in Denmark and 9 percent in Sweden, however, 25 percent of the Norwegians who celebrate Halloween will be walking from house to house trick-or-treating, which is nearly as high a percentage as we see in Ireland, where 30 percent of the people celebrating Halloween will be trick-or-treating.

In Ireland only 34 percent won't be celebrating Halloween and the people that are going to celebrate it, will be both carving pumpkins (20 percent), watching horror movies (23 percent) and doing other Halloween activities (25 percent), however, only 2 percent of the Irish panel members will be attending costume parties.

Userneeds wish all a fun and scary Halloween!