Harry Potter Halloween

For Harry Potter, Halloween at Hogwarts was always accompanied by a grand feast, and as the cherry on top, he experienced some adventure at the end of this festive and important holiday in the wizarding world.

Harry Potter's First Halloween

Harry's first Halloween night in his life became fateful for him. The date October 31, 1981, was a turning point for the entire wizarding world. On this day, Lord Voldemort broke into Godric's Hollow and murdered Lily and James Potter, intending to do the same to little Harry Potter. However, the curse rebounded, and Lord Voldemort mysteriously vanished at that moment. Since that night, this day has been recorded as the day Harry Potter first defeated Voldemort. And so, the entire wizarding world celebrated while Harry ended up with his Muggle aunt and uncle.

In the Harry Potter series, author J.K. Rowling focuses on Halloween only in the first four parts. In the later, darker parts, Halloween does not appear or is only mentioned peripherally. Joyful pumpkins, festive feasts, funny ghosts, or trolls would not fit well with the gloomy and serious atmosphere of the last three books. Therefore, in today's article, we will focus only on the first four parts and what happened during the Halloween celebrations.

Halloween at Hogwarts

After his first traumatic experience, Harry, after eleven years of his life, experienced his first traditional festive Halloween night at Hogwarts. The Great Hall was decorated with spooky decorations. A thousand bats hung from the walls, and several more flew above the tables. There were also orange pumpkins lit with candles. Various dishes appeared on golden plates and bowls. This festive atmosphere did not last long. A frightened Professor Quirrell burst into the Great Hall, screaming that there was a troll in the castle tower. On their way to the Gryffindor Tower, Harry and Ron realized that Hermione was crying in the bathroom and had no idea about the troll, so they decided to go look for her. They locked the troll in the bathrooms and only realized what they had done late. They had left Hermione Granger trapped with the troll, and so it led to a rescue and a "fight" with the troll. This was another important point in Harry's life. Not because he defeated a troll as an eleven-year-old, but because from that moment on, Hermione Granger joined their little group, and from then on, they were an inseparable trio. The Golden Trio.

Harry's second year at Hogwarts again brought unexpected adventures on October 31, the day when the festive Halloween feast was held at Hogwarts. This time, along with Ron and Hermione, they found themselves at a completely different festive feast. This year's Halloween coincided with the fifth anniversary of Nearly Headless Nick's death, and who better than Harry Potter and his friends received an invitation to this death celebration?

The death celebration had a truly spooky atmosphere. With so many ghosts present, it was extremely cold in the room. The music was unpleasant to human ears, and the food was not exactly edible either. On the table, silver plates held rotten fish, burnt cakes, sausages crawling with worms, moldy cheese... They didn't stay at the celebration long, literally, and were about to leave when suddenly Harry heard a chilling voice coming from the walls. This voice led them to a scene that influenced all events at Hogwarts that year. It led them to a wall where it was written in blood that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened again, and as if that wasn't enough, this creepy scene was complemented by the hanging petrified Mrs. Norris.

Harry's third Halloween spent at Hogwarts also brought unpleasant events that once again affected his life. This year's Halloween fell on the day when third-year students could visit Hogsmeade for the first time. On that day, Harry was very disappointed because he was the only third-year student left in the castle, wandering alone through the hallways while the others ran around shops and explored new places. The Great Hall was decorated just like in previous years. Real bats hung from the ceiling, some flew around the room, the pumpkins were lit, and at the end, the Hogwarts ghosts had prepared entertainment for the students and professors. They popped out from the walls, from the tables, and Nearly Headless Nick performed his own beheading execution. Unfortunately, this evening also did not end pleasantly. The Gryffindor students discovered that the Fat Lady, who guarded their entrance to the common room, had disappeared, and her portrait was slashed. During the festive feast, Sirius Black attempted to break into the Gryffindor common room, and so the entire school had to sleep in the Great Hall on this spooky night.

The last mention of this holiday appears in the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. During the Halloween feast, the champions for the Triwizard Tournament were to be announced. This was the year when Harry hoped he wouldn't be in the spotlight and could quietly enjoy watching the tournament. As we know, it didn't go as Harry wished. Someone cursed the Goblet of Fire, causing Harry's name to fly out, and he had to participate in this immensely dangerous international tournament as well.

In conclusion, a reflection. The Deathly Hallows in the original English title Deathly Hallows has part of the name Halloween in its title. In the wizarding world, Hallows are known as three magical objects of immense power that can defeat Death. Harry owned all of them at one point. How interesting that Halloween is associated with the supernatural and that these objects bear a similar name. And Harry is also associated with Muggle Halloween because of his parents' deaths and the defeat of Voldemort, and at one point, he was the Master of Death.