Do you prefer Halloween or Bonfire Night? Poll of the week

Consumer spending on Halloween may have topped £1bn for the first time last year - but is it really more popular than the British tradition of Bonfire Night?

Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After the poll closes, we'll publish and analyse the results each Friday, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.

Taken from inside a residential house, two families wearing fancy dress, out trick or treating in North East England during halloween. The children are taking sweets off a plate that an unrecognisable woman is holding.
There's may be a perception that Halloween has overtaken Bonfire Night in the UK - but how true is this claim? (Getty Images)

It's that time of the year again where partygoers hit the town posing as their favourite horror movie characters, while children dressed as ghosts and ghouls go door-to-door shaking down their neighbours for treats.

Halloween has become a significantly more popular celebration in the UK in recent years, with market data from Mintel showing Britons collectively spent over £1bn on the festival last year for the first time.

Whether the largely US traditions of trick-or-treating and carving Jack-o-Lanterns have overtaken the uniquely British custom of Bonfire Night remains up for debate, however.

Halloween certainly seems to be more favoured by the younger generation, if Gen Z's spending habits are anything to go by, with market data shared by Consultancy.uk suggesting 87% of the cohort plan to spend an average of £46 each on celebrations, decorations and costumes.

It certainly seems to be growing in visibility - if not necessarily popularity.

In 2013, polling by YouGov suggested 70% of UK adults would prefer it if children did not come to their door, while just 23% were happy to greet trick or treaters.

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 04: Fireworks explode in the sky during the annual display at Alexandra Palace on November 04, 2023 in London, England. This year marks the 150th Anniversary of fireworks at Alexandra Palace.  (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Fireworks light up the sky during the annual display at Alexandra Palace in London last year. (Getty Images)

Data published by the polling company this year, however, suggests people may have since warmed to the tradition, 51% of people having a positive opinion of Halloween now.

The numbers certainly reveal that British are certainly parting with far more cash than they used to, with data from Statista showing a persistent rise in spending, although it is projected to drop to £776 million in 2024.

A report by Hawker's Firm from 2021 claims Halloween is now the third biggest annual shopping event for supermarkets, after Christmas and Easter, the Guardian reported.

The report adds that four in 10 Halloween costumes are worn just once before being disposed of, generating an estimated 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste.

But what about Bonfire Night? Well, YouGov's polling from this year marked the over 400-year-old tradition as the eighth most popular national or religious event in the UK, while Halloween was placed in eleventh.

This suggests no matter the public perception, Britons are still more eager to watch firework displays on 5 November as they mark a piece of their nation's history.

Consumer data from Mintel shows Bonfire Night saw an increase in spending of almost 20% last year, which was driven mainly by 16- to 34-year-olds.

But what do you think? Has Halloween overtaken Guy Fawkes night in the UK? And how important is it that we stay connected to such traditions, whether they be newly imported ones such as Halloween, or the centuries old Bonfire night, which was first commemorated in 1606. Let us know in the two polls below.

Voting has closed. For the latest results go to our Poll of the Week hub page