Halloween in Polish: Spooky Vocabulary, Phrases & the Tradition Behind It

Halloween in Polish is here! Learn spooky vocabulary, trick-or-treat phrases, and the surprising Polish tradition behind Halloween from a native teacher.

Pumpkins are starting to appear in Polish shop windows, kids are learning to shout cukierek albo psikus!, and Halloween is slowly creeping into Poland, though, as you’ll see, it’s a little more complicated here than you might expect.

I’m a native Polish teacher, so whether you want to wish someone a spooky Halloween, name every monster on the street, or just understand what Poles actually do on October 31, here’s your complete Halloween-in-Polish guide. 

How to say “Halloween” and “Happy Halloween” in Polish

Good news: the word itself is easy. Poles simply borrowed it.

• Halloween (HA-lo-ween) — Halloween. (It’s treated as a neuter noun, so you’ll hear na Halloween, “on/for Halloween.”)

• Wesołego Halloween! (ve-so-WE-go HA-lo-ween) — “Happy Halloween!” (literally “merry Halloween,” built just like Wesołego Bożego Narodzenia).

  
  

And the single most important Halloween phrase, the one kids chant at every door:

• Cukierek albo psikus! (tsoo-KYE-rek AL-bo PSEE-koos) — “Trick or treat!” (literally “a candy or a prank”).

Halloween monsters and characters

Here’s who’s out haunting the streets. These are the words every Polish child knows by Halloween night.

Polish	Pronunciation	English
duch	dooh	ghost
wampir	VAM-peer	vampire
czarownica	cha-ro-VNEE-tsa	witch
wilkołak	veel-KO-wak	werewolf
potwór	POT-foor	monster
zombie	ZOM-bee	zombie
demon	DE-mon	demon
szkielet	SHKYE-let	skeleton
klaun	klown	clown
duszek	DOO-shek	little ghost / spirit
czarownik	cha-ROV-neek	wizard, sorcerer
księżniczka	kshenzh-NEECH-ka	princess
superbohater	soo-per-bo-HA-ter	superhero

To make most of these plural (a whole street full of them), you usually add -y: duch → duchy, wampir → wampiry, potwór → potwory. Witches are czarownice.

Costumes and dressing up

Half the fun of Halloween is the outfit. The key words:

• przebranie (pshe-BRA-nye) — costume

• kostium (KOS-tyoom) — costume (an alternative)

• przebierać się za… (pshe-BYE-rach sheh za) — to dress up as…

• malować się (ma-LO-vach sheh) — to do one’s makeup

So you can say:

• Przebieram się za wampira. — “I’m dressing up as a vampire.”

• Maluję się na biało. — “I’m painting my face white.”

• Masz przebranie na Halloween? — “Do you have a Halloween costume?”

💡 NOTE: "przebierać się za" is followed by the accusative case, which is why "wampir" becomes "wampira". Want to learn more about cases? Check out my Exploring Przypadki: Your Handbook to Polish Cases ebook.

Spooky things and Halloween objects

The decorations, props, and creepy-crawlies of the season:

Polish	Pronunciation	English
dynia	DIH-nya	pumpkin
czarny kot	CHAR-nih kot	black cat
pająk	PA-yonk	spider
pajęczyna	pa-yen-CHI-na	spiderweb
nietoperz	nye-TO-pesh	bat
miotła	MYOT-wa	broom
czaszka	CHASH-ka	skull
trumna	TROOM-na	coffin
cmentarz	TSMEN-tash	cemetery
świeca	SHFYE-tsa	candle
cukierki	tsoo-KYER-kee	candy, sweets

“Czego się boisz?” What are you afraid of?

Here’s a wonderfully useful (and very Halloween) bit of grammar. The verb bać się means “to be afraid (of),” and the thing you fear goes into the genitive case:

• Czego się boisz? (CHE-go sheh BO-eesh) — “What are you afraid of?”

• Boję się pająków. — “I’m afraid of spiders.”

• Boję się duchów. — “I’m afraid of ghosts.”

• Nie boję się wampirów! — “I’m not afraid of vampires!”

• Boję się ciemności. — “I’m afraid of the dark.”

It’s the perfect sentence to practice at a spooky time of year. (And yes, boję się, boisz się, boi się, boimy się, boicie się, boją się across all the persons.)

Useful Halloween phrases and adjectives

String it all together with a few spooky describing words:

• straszny (STRASH-nih) — scary

• przerażający (pshe-ra-ZHA-yon-tsih) — terrifying

• upiorny (oo-PYOR-nih) — ghostly, eerie

• zły (zwih) — evil, bad

• Ale strasznie! — “How scary!”

• Boję się! — “I’m scared!”

• Wesołego Halloween! — “Happy Halloween!”

• Cukierek albo psikus! — “Trick or treat!”

  
  

Halloween vs. Wszystkich Świętych

Halloween is a new and imported holiday in Poland. It only started spreading in the 1990s, it’s largely commercial, and it’s genuinely divisive: plenty of Poles (and the Catholic Church) view it with suspicion as a foreign import, while younger people and kids increasingly embrace the costumes and candy. You’ll see Halloween parties in cities and pumpkins in shops, but it’s nothing like the all-out celebration it is in the US.

That’s because Poland already has a profound, centuries-old tradition at exactly this time of year: Wszystkich Świętych (FSHIST-keeh SHFYEN-tiih), All Saints’ Day, on November 1.

It's one of the most important days in the Polish calendar, and it couldn’t be more different from Halloween in spirit. It’s solemn, warm, and deeply moving. Families travel across the country to visit the graves of loved ones, clean and decorate them with flowers, and light znicze (ZNEE-che), special grave candles, so that by nightfall entire cemeteries glow with thousands of flickering lights. It’s genuinely one of the most beautiful sights in Poland.

The following day, November 2, is Zaduszki (All Souls’ Day), dedicated to praying for the departed.

So if you’re in Poland around October 31, you’ll get a little Halloween, but the real heart of the season is the quiet, candlelit remembrance of Wszystkich Świętych.

"Lubisz Halloween"? Do you like Halloween?

Halloween in Polish is genuinely fun to learn: a whole cast of duchy, wampiry, and czarownice, the all-important cukierek albo psikus! at the door, and even a neat little grammar trick in Czego się boisz? (“What are you afraid of?”). Learn even a handful of these words and phrases and you’ll be ready to join in wherever Halloween is being celebrated in Poland.

But the real takeaway is the context around the costumes. Halloween is a young, imported, and still slightly contested holiday in Poland — growing every year, especially among kids and young people, yet living in the shadow of something far older and more meaningful.

Just one day later, on November 1, comes Wszystkich Świętych: the candlelit cemeteries, the chrysanthemums, the quiet remembrance of those who’ve passed. Knowing both sides of this season — the playful and the profound — is what separates someone who’s memorized a vocabulary list from someone who actually understands Poland. That cultural awareness will serve you far beyond October.

So pick a few spooky words, practice Wesołego Halloween! in front of the mirror, and don’t try to learn it all at once. IAnd if you want to practice your spooky Polish out loud with a native teacher, you can always book a lesson. Wesołego Halloween! 🎃

Frequently asked questions

How do you say “Halloween” in Polish?

Simply Halloween — Poland borrowed the English word wholesale, so there’s no separate Polish name for it (which tells you how recently it arrived). It’s pronounced much like in English, roughly HA-lo- łin, and it’s treated as a neuter noun that doesn’t change its endings. You’ll usually meet it with a preposition: na Halloween (“for/on Halloween”), as in Co robisz na Halloween? (“What are you doing for Halloween?”). There’s also a handy adjective, halloweenowy, for anything Halloween-themed — an impreza halloweenowa is a Halloween party, and a dynia halloweenowa is a Halloween pumpkin.

How do you say “Happy Halloween” in Polish?

Wesołego Halloween! It follows the same pattern as other Polish holiday greetings, like Wesołego Bożego Narodzenia (Merry Christmas) or Wesołych Świąt. The reason it’s in that -ego (genitive) form is that there’s an invisible życzę ci (“I wish you…”) in front of it, so you’re literally wishing someone “a merry Halloween.” If you want to lean into the spooky side, you’ll also hear playful versions like Strasznego Halloween! (“a scary Halloween!”). And because the holiday is borrowed, there’s no single “official” greeting carved in stone.

How do you say “trick or treat” in Polish?

Cukierek albo psikus! Breaking it down: cukierek is “a (little) candy,” albo means “or,” and psikus is “a prank” or “a bit of mischief” — so the whole thing is literally “a candy or a prank.” It’s the standard phrase Polish kids use when they go door to door, and it captures the spirit of the English original perfectly. That said, since trick-or-treating itself is still a relatively new, imported custom in Poland, it’s far less widespread than in the US — in many neighborhoods you won’t get many knocks at the door at all.

How do you say “pumpkin” in Polish?

Dynia (a feminine noun, pronounced roughly DIH-nya), with the plural dynie. Importantly, dynia is an everyday word, not just a Halloween one — it’s the vegetable Poles have long used in dishes like zupa dyniowa (pumpkin soup), so it carried no spooky associations until recently. A carved jack-o’-lantern is usually called a dynia halloweenowa, or sometimes a lampion z dyni (“a pumpkin lantern”). And if you want to describe the activity itself, wydrążyć dynię means “to carve out / hollow a pumpkin.”

Do Poles celebrate Halloween?

Increasingly, but with mixed feelings. Halloween only began spreading in Poland in the 1990s and 2000s, carried in by American films, pop culture, and shopping malls, so it’s a young and heavily commercial import. Today it’s genuinely popular with children, teenagers, and young adults — there are costume parties, club nights, school events, and pumpkins in shop windows — but it’s nowhere near the scale it reaches in the US, and door-to-door trick-or-treating is still fairly uncommon. It’s also somewhat controversial: the Catholic Church and more traditional Poles often view it as a foreign, even pagan, intrusion, especially because it falls right before the country’s most solemn autumn observance. Some parishes even organize Christian alternatives, like “Holy Wins” events or a Bal Wszystkich Świętych (an All Saints’ costume ball where children dress as saints instead of monsters). So you’ll see Halloween in Poland, but it sits awkwardly next to a much deeper tradition — which brings us to the next question.

What is Wszystkich Świętych?

Wszystkich Świętych (All Saints’ Day), on November 1, is one of the most important and widely observed days in the entire Polish calendar — a public holiday that nearly everyone marks, regardless of how religious they are. It’s the day Poles honor their deceased loved ones. Families travel enormous distances across the country to reach the cemeteries where relatives are buried — the roads are famously jammed in what’s almost a national migration — and once there, they clean and tidy the graves, lay fresh flowers (traditionally chrysanthemums, chryzantemy), and light znicze, the special grave candles. By nightfall, entire cemeteries shimmer with thousands upon thousands of tiny flames, which is one of the most quietly beautiful sights in Poland. The following day, November 2, is Zaduszki (All Souls’ Day), devoted to prayer and remembrance for the departed. In mood, it’s the complete opposite of Halloween: not spooky or playful at all, but reflective, warm, and deeply rooted in family and memory.