In order to understand why black and orange became the colors of Halloween, we need to look back to Halloween’s Celtic progenitor, Samhain. The answer dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which originated in the 18th century. The Celts, who lived in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France, considered the festival to be a type of new year celebration.

In the early 20th century, some Halloween postcards would have witches in red or purple dresses and Jack-o’-lanterns in green colors. The second major color of the traditional Halloween orange and black color theme is the color of the jack-o’-lantern or pumpkin. The carved pumpkins takuache hats with names are a common feature of Halloween banner ads and decorations and this makes orange a big part of the Halloween color palette. Orange also represents the fall season when Halloween takes place and represents fire or warmth which contrasts the darkness and spooky nature.

Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. When they got to America, they used pumpkins instead and that is how the tradition of carving pumpkins for Halloween was started. On November 2nd which is just a few days after Halloween on October 31st, the Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico. At this festival, offerings of food and drink were left for the spirits or souls of the dead.

Or, at the very least, impress friends and family with some usefulHalloween trivia. Like trick-or-treaters and haunted houses, the color combination of black and orange is instantly synonymous with Halloween. Every October these hues start to pop up in the form of lawn decorations, costumes, and candy offerings at the grocery store, signaling the start of the spookiest season of the year.

This harvest season also has important links with the origin of Halloween. Fire is used to light up the evening of Halloween with carved pumpkins that have candles inside. So there is a very strong link between the color black, the theme of death and this time of the year. Discover why these colors are used, what they mean and what other colors now have associations with Halloween and October 31st celebrations. If you’ve ever wondered about Halloween colors, their meaning and symbolism, this page will give you all the fun facts and so much more. Black is a powerful Halloween colorTogether with orange, black is one of the most powerful colors of Halloween.

This bright color is what counteracted the more sinister nature of Halloween that black represented. Of course, orange and black represent a large majority of the spooky spirit. But black itself is probably the most impressive of all Halloween colors. We can imagine not all of these colors for Halloween are so obvious.

Purple is also a color that corresponds with intuition and knowledge often tied to psychic ability and power—much like what you’d see when you look into a crystal ball. Taking scary monsters out of black outfits and putting them in soft purple tones can make them less scary. There are quite a few Disney villains with many purple tones like Maleficent and Ursula. Orange and black can be traced all the way back to the origin of Halloween, at the festival of Samhain.

In fact, my home has had a freshly painted teal pumpkin placed out front since I first learned about the Teal Pumpkin Project. As a Halloween color, white represents the spookiness of clowns, mummy bandages, and it’s a stark background for blood splatter. White represents the undead and the loneliness of spirits who can not rest.

For Halloween it is more a symbol of dying and a reminder that we are human and mortal. Showing bleeding Halloween decorations represents blood draining from a body and the loss of blood is a reference to mortality and the fear of dying. It’s a color frequently found in nature and it is also the color of pumpkin stems. Many Halloween creatures are black in color and come out at night. Black is a popular Halloween color because like Halloween, it has ties to death. It’s believed that the veil between the living and dead is thinnest around Halloween time.