🇺🇸How does United States mark Halloween?

Halloween

Local date

October 31, 2026

Halloween is absent from 5 U.S.C. §6103, the section that names the legal public holidays: New Year's Day, the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The federal government does not close — but it does regulate. The Food and Drug Administration treats decorative contact lenses, the ones marketed as Halloween lenses, as medical devices: any lens not prescribed by a doctor is illegal, and the agency names the places not to buy from, the Halloween store among them. The Consumer Product Safety Commission issues a fire alert telling households to keep candles and jack-o'-lanterns away from where children brush past, to avoid baggy or oversized costumes, and to choose flame-resistant fabrics. The hours, meanwhile, are municipal business. Covington, Kentucky has set official trick-or-treating at 6 to 8 p.m. by city ordinance since October 2018, standing every year unless the Board of Commissioners acts. Dublin, Ohio and much of Central Ohio follow the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission rule instead: when 31 October falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, trick-or-treat moves to the Thursday before; when it falls Monday to Thursday it stays on the 31st. Dublin's 2026 trick-or-treat night is therefore 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday 29 October — two days before Halloween. In the country most identified with the festival, the date itself is something a local government may move.