Hallowe’en at Hogwarts

Hallowe’en at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a special occasion at the school, with a magnificent feast and amazing decorations in the Great Hall.

Hallowe’en Year One

Where: Great Hall; to be continued later in the common rooms (PS10)

Who: Hogwarts students & staff

Special/Strange guests: a Troll in the dungeons, interrupting the feast

Decorations: live bats fluttering from the walls and ceiling and swooping over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter.

Meal: feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, a baked potato was the only food described before the announcement of the Troll and the vacating of the students from the Great Hall

Entertainment/strange events: Harry & Ron corner and knock out a twelve foot tall Troll in girls’ bathroom, while rescuing Hermione; Snape discovered lurking on the third floor; Moaning Myrtle in the girls’ third floor bathroom

Hallowe’en Year Two

Where: Great Hall; Death Day Party (CS7, CS8)

Who: Harry, Ron, and Hermione attended Nearly Headless Nick’s Death Day Party, which caused them to miss the Hallowe’en Feast.

Entertainment/Guests: Giant jack-o’lanterns carved by Hagrid large enough to sit in; a “Troupe of Dancing Skeletons”

Strange Event : Harry heard the Basilisk inside the walls; Mrs. Norris the cat was found petrified in the Hallway, and a sign on the wall in blood said “THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

Hallowe’en Year Three

Where: Hogsmeade; Great Hall (PA8, PA9)

Who: Hogwarts Students and Staff

During the Day: Hermione and Ron were allowed to go to Hogsmeade but his Uncle Vernon wouldn’t sign Harry’s form so they brought him candy from Honeydukes. Professor Snape brought Remus Lupin a “smoking goblet” full of potion which worried Harry who thought it was poison. (Lupin turned up alive and well at the feast).

Decorations: Pumpkins, Bats, and “orange streamers which were swimming lazily across the stormy ceiling like brilliant watersnakes” (PA8)

Entertainment: The Hogwarts ghosts popped out of the walls and re-enacted Nearly Headless Nick’s beheading.

Uninvited guest: Sirius Black, who slashed the Fat Lady’s portrait during the feast, and broke into Gryffindor Tower trying to find Scabbers the rat (PA9). So Hallowe’en turned into a slumber party in the Great Hall with “squishy purple sleeping bags” conjured by Dumbledore.

Hallowe’en Year Four

Where: The Great Hall with the Goblet of Fire (GF16)

Who: Hogwarts Students and Staff, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students and chaperones

Decorations: Bats and pumpkins appeared in the morning just before Fred and George tried to cross the age line to put their names in the Goblet and were transformed into old men with beards.

Best costume: Hagrid tried to impress Madam Maxime with a “his best (and very horrible) hairy brown suit, plus a checked yellow-and-orange tie.”

Surprise: Four names emerged from the Goblet of Fire instead of three, and even though Harry was too young for the Triwizard Tournament the magic was legally binding.

Hallowe’en Year Five

No mention of a Hallowe’en Feast, perhaps because of Dolores Umbridge who did not appreciate the students having fun.

“October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron…” (OP19)

Hallowe’en Years Six and Seven

No feast mentioned. Voldemort was frightening enough.

Notes and interesting facts

31st October is also the anniversary of James and Lily's deaths and Voldemort's defeat.