29 October 2025  Wednesday Addams, Beetlejuice & Austria's taste for spooky chicThis year, Austria's favourite Halloween faces could have walked straight out of a Netflix binge. Search data from willhaben.at and reports by Austrian media publications show surging interest in Wednesday Addams, Beetlejuice, and the enduring appeal of Squid Game and Harley Quinn. Traditional witches and pumpkins still rule family festivities, but 2025 clearly belongs to streaming-inspired pop culture. While no nationwide ranking confirms Wednesday Addams as the single most-worn costume, her braids and black dress dominate search trends — proof of how a fictional teen from Nevermore Academy has bewitched Austria's imagination.From All Saints to all-out partiesFor centuries, 1 November (All Saints' Day) and 2 November (All Souls' Day) have been reflective holidays in Austria — days for remembrance, not revelry. Halloween's return to Europe in the late 1990s, after evolving from its Celtic roots into a US pop-culture event, at first seemed at odds with the country's traditions. Yet over the past two decades, the "night of spirits" has quietly found a place in Austria's cultural calendar. What began as a curiosity has grown into a hybrid celebration — part remembrance of ancient folklore, part modern spectacle. The Celtic festival Samhain, which marked the end of harvest and the start of winter, was believed to blur the line between living and dead. Today's Austrian Halloween keeps the mood but swaps fire rituals for fairy lights, masks for make-up, and sacred offerings for supermarket sweets. While the reflective tone of early November remains, many Austrians now see Halloween as a playful prelude — a night that balances the spiritual calm of All Saints with a dose of theatrical mischief.Scary sales: Vienna's €16 million fright economyHalloween's economic rise is anything but spooky fiction. According to the Wirtschaftskammer Wien, Viennese households will spend around €16 million on Halloween goods this year — up 25 % from 2024. The average citizen invests €50, mainly in sweets (85 %), pumpkins and decorations (34 %), and make-up or accessories (28 %). Nationwide, the Handelsverband Consumer Check 2025 projects spending of €90 million, or €74 per person. Austrians' top Halloween purchases are sweets (51 %), pumpkins (32 %), snacks (31 %), decorations (30 %), costumes (19 %), and cosmetics (15 %).These numbers show that Halloween has become a steady autumn boost for retailers — a welcome bridge between back-to-school shopping and the Christmas rush. Costume stores, supermarkets and even small craft businesses now depend on the October buzz for sales and visibility. A festival between saints and streamingDespite its economic power, Halloween hasn't overtaken Fasching or the summer festivals as Austria's biggest celebration. But it may be the most adaptable.For families, it's about laughter and door-to-door candy hunts. For young adults, it's an excuse to dress up, go out, and merge irony with artistry — think Wednesday Addams meets Viennese nightlife. For retailers, it's a chance to stir up seasonal excitement during a slow quarter. Halloween 2025 in Austria captures the country's evolving cultural rhythm: reflective yet playful, rooted in tradition yet open to global pop symbols. It's a night where saints meet sweets — and where a pale-faced teenager from a Netflix series becomes the unlikely icon of Austria's autumn spirit. Image: A rooftop Halloween party in a city at dusk. People in various costumes, including vampires, witches, and other spooky characters, mingle on a decorated terrace with spiderwebs, pumpkins, and candles. In the background, a cityscape with illuminated buildings, including a Ferris wheel and a cathedral, stretches under a dark blue sky. Photo: © Fashion.at — AI-generated with Google AI Studio. |