How to celebrate Halloween in a pandemic: unexpected masks, entertainment, online parties

Alice Smahina

A lot of water and sanitizer has flowed over the dam since the carefree Halloween last year. The COVID-19 pandemic is not subsiding, and people are gradually learning to celebrate holidays that used to be large scale with your near and dear ones. They listen to the governments' and epidemiologists' advice and invent alternative forms of celebration.

Will we have jokes, costumes, parties on Halloween this year? Will we be able to feel comfortable planning a fairy-tale horror holiday, when everyone is already quite scared during the months-long "corona-horror?" In many countries where Halloween has a long tradition, people naturally ask: should they even celebrate an event that at first glance seems frivolous and insignificant, when so many infected people on Earth suffer and die from a dangerous virus?

We are closer to the idea that exactly because of the current situation, it's important to follow the customs that unite people thanks to positivity, good mood, and healing laughter, not bad news. After all, according to doctors, a positive attitude is always the best medicine for autumn blues, and fatigue, and any disease.

The Celtic holiday of the living and the dead, or the Christian holiday of All Saints' Day, has long become an interesting fall adventure for children and adults around the world. Although Halloween's popularity in Ukraine is only gaining momentum, its entertaining attributes like sweets, parties, carved pumpkins, unusual costumes, and decorations, are exactly what we all really need now.

But we are still amid a pandemic, so it's no surprise that Halloween celebrations and treats will look different this year.

We have collected the 17 coolest ideas for you on how to celebrate this splendid autumn holiday in a new and safe format.