Halloween

Halloween is a holiday in the United States, celebrated both before and after the Great War.

Background
Celebrated at the end of October alongside various other autumnal events, preparations for the fall holiday were underway and adornments put in place shortly before the war. Aside from flourishes still present in homes and businesses, evidence of the holiday's popularity is commonly found throughout the former United States.

Pre-War
Celebratory Halloween-themed events included festivals and parties taking place in schools, outdoor venues, and in workplaces. At the Tyler County Fairgrounds, attractions such as the "Tyler County Scare" event barn and Halloween hayrides were put in place ahead of the Halloween weekend carnival. Across the street at the dirt track, ticket sales were well on their way for the Halloween Night Thrills Demolition Derby featuring 'Hot' Rod Daniels on Sunday, October 31, encouraging interested parties to "come celebrate spooky Halloween at the most amazing car calamity show in the mountains." A livestock show and auction were also planned for the carnival, with the Best of Show announcement planned for Halloween day.

The town of Lewisburg dedicated a weekend to their Halloween festival, setting up stalls and planning for a live band, coinciding with the upcoming senate vote taking place a few days later. Employees of the U.S. National Park Service decorated their watchtowers to celebrate Halloween while on duty. Farmsteads set up Halloween-themed events and attractions with pumpkin-covered farm fields and photo booths, such as the Halloween fright farm and Halloween horror hamlet, inviting visitors touring the area to enjoy the sights. Grocery stores such as the Super-Duper Mart in Watoga ran Halloween sales, with signage advertising "spooky savings."

Schools engaged in a wide variety of Halloween festivities, such as the Bolton Greens Halloween gala for the affluent families of students. Students attending D.B. Technical High School and East Boston Preparatory School were encouraged to purchase tickets ahead of time for the Halloween Sadie Hawkins dance. The students and staff at Suffolk County Charter School prepared costumes and celebrated an annual Halloween festival.

Other events include Watoga High School's annual Monster Mash Monday, an annual tradition taking place the Monday before Halloween, where students wielding bats and sticks bash in a piñata head filled with toys and candy worn by a teacher. Although student involvement was voluntary, teachers were pressed into service, suggesting in response that their robotic assistant teachers be utilized instead.

Student misbehavior revolving around pulling pranks was common leading up to the traditionally mischievous holiday, resulting in school administrators outlining rules and regulations ahead of time. Announcements encouraged students to file formal complaints if they wished to contest whether their actions qualify as a "trick" or not. In an effort to quell overindulgence in candy, schools such as Watoga High installed SMART choice machines, exchanging candy for prizes.

Costumes played a significant role in Halloween events, worn to parties, while trick-or-treating, or as allowed on a temporarily basis at various schools. Businesses such as Freddy Fear's House of Scares catered to those seeking annual disguises, offering a variety of choices, including costumes of a witch, skeleton, clown, vampire, Lady Liberty, a Red Chinese invader, American soldier, and Sock Hop Susie. Others chose to create costumes by hand,  Other popular costumes include those emulating the Pint-Sized Slasher and Captain Cosmos. utilizing a wide variety of materials.

Schools allowed students to wear their costumes to school in some cases, holding their own costume contests, so long as the students abided by applicable handbook guidelines. In addition, around the Halloween season, after school detentions were canceled. A costume contest was also sponsored by Freddy Fear's, advertised throughout Appalachia, the Commonwealth, the Mojave Wasteland, and the Capital Wasteland.

Trick-or-treating was an event tied to the celebration of Halloween, where individuals would travel from residence to residence to gather candy, sometimes accompanied by Miss Nanny bots. Trick-or-treating was also offered as an attraction at larger events, such as at the Tyler County Fairgrounds Halloween carnival. Adults also donned costumes, engaging in trick or treating as well as heading to parties at local establishments.

Halloween events also included the popular tradition of decorating with pumpkins, carving and displaying them alight around homes and businesses. A jack-o-lantern themed attraction known as the Pumpkin House was established in 1978, beginning with only four pumpkins carved for a Halloween display. Over the years, the number of hand-carved pumpkins grew to over 300, attracting large groups of tourists and becoming one of the most popular attractions in Appalachia.

Post-War
The celebration of Halloween continued after the Great War. The residents and business owners of Diamond City decorate each year on October 31, and Diamond City security will complain about working on the holiday, saying "today's Halloween, but do we get treats? Nooooo. It's all tricks, all day." The Neighborhood Watch in Goodneighbor will make comments about the holiday, asking passersby if they are wearing a Halloween costume, or are just naturally ugly. They will also wish others a Happy Halloween, followed with a question as to if they are scared yet. If wearing the Silver Shroud costume in Vault 81, the citizens will give compliments, asking if it is Halloween already.

The Maître d' at Bolton Greens will ask the Vault Dwellers for assistance in preparing for the long-past Halloween gala event. It will ask afterward if they think the adornments were sufficient or not. When speaking with Codsworth, it will lament that the war cut short plans to celebrate Halloween and be visited by all the young trick-or-treaters centuries earlier. However, Codsworth will mention that it recently spotted Ms. Rosa's son, running around the neighborhood in his costume, a week before Halloween.

At the post-War Pumpkin House, the automated attendant Jack O' Lantern is still functioning according to its original directives, preparing for the upcoming Halloween festival. If assisted in collecting pumpkins for carving, Jack will provide rewards such as pumpkin grenades and radioactive pumpkin seeds.

Vault dwellers who wore a Pip-Boy 2000 received a Halloween greeting on the device every October 31. In Vault 51, ZAX 1.3c will provide well wishes, stating "Happy Halloween from all of us at Vault-Tec" to potential overseer candidates. ZAX notes the fact that it "encourage[s] celebration of holidays that inspire bloodshed." It will continue, mentioning that the holiday has inspired new additions to the vault, acquired readily from testing, such as skeletons and rotting gourds and corpses. ZAX states that it believes most holidays have little value, but a holiday for death such as Halloween is perfect motivation for testing.

Despite using "trick or treat" as a greeting, ZAX reports that candidates should not expect to receive any Halloween treats, as the positive effect on testing is negligible. In addition, it shares the observation that the individual "has dressed up as a disappointing overseer candidate this Halloween" but attempts to rally confidence, stating that by failing as a candidate, one will succeed as a decoration. In Vault 76, an annual Halloween costume contest took place, the winner of which received a trophy.

Appearances
Halloween is mentioned in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, as well as in Fallout 76 and its Nuclear Winter mode.

Behind the scenes
As Fallout 76 features a larger number of events and occasions themed around the holiday, Jeff Gardiner believes Halloween events are exciting to fans, as well as being in service to the lore of the series.