Autumn in Spain brings more than costumes and pumpkin lanterns. Around the end of October and the beginning of November, contemporary Halloween celebrations share the season with family remembrance, roasted chestnuts and stories passed from one generation to another.
Halloween, All Saints’ Day and autumn traditions
Halloween falls on 31 October. Its history brings together Celtic antecedents, Christian observances and later popular customs. That does not mean today’s Halloween has been celebrated unchanged across Spain since ancient times.
Día de Todos los Santos — All Saints’ Day — is on 1 November. Many families visit cemeteries, bring flowers and remember loved ones. This day and Halloween can coexist, but they are not the same celebration.
Chestnuts are another part of the season. Different places have their own celebrations and names: castanyada in Catalonia, magosto in Galicia, amagüestu in Asturias and magosta in Cantabria, among others. Their dates and customs vary.
Today you may also find costumes, scary stories and truco o trato — trick or treat. There is no single version of the season shared by every town or family. That variety is part of what makes culture interesting.
Three creatures from regional folklore
The following beings belong to regional traditions. We bring them together here for an autumn reading journey; they are not all specifically Halloween characters.
La Guajona · Cantabria
La Guajona is a frightening figure of Cantabrian oral tradition. She is described as a thin old woman wrapped in a dark cloak, with a single long tooth. In the tales, she moves silently through the night and drains the strength of sleepers by drinking their blood.
Her presence belongs to the world of stories and beliefs about the night: the fear of what enters a house unseen, and the mystery of waking tired or pale. Descriptions differ between tellers and versions.
La Pesanta · Catalonia
La Pesanta is an imaginary nighttime creature, often described as a large dark dog or cat. In the legend, it enters houses and weighs down sleepers, oppressing their chests and bringing nightmares.
The important word here is legend. The creature gives a shape to an experience of fear in the night; the story is not evidence of a supernatural visitor.
Guayota · Tenerife, Canary Islands
In Guanche mythology, Guayota is associated with Echeyde, the Teide volcano. A version retold by Museos de Tenerife tells how Guayota captured Magec, the sun, leaving the world in darkness. Achamán defeated him, returned the sun to the sky and confined Guayota inside the mountain.
This is a mythic way of imagining darkness, fire and the power of a volcanic landscape. The illustration is an interpretation of the legend, rather than a record of the volcano’s appearance.
Three places and stories of mystery
El Cortijo Jurado · Málaga
The farmhouse at Campanillas has become a setting for modern ghost stories. Tales speak of unexplained sounds, hidden passages and restless spirits. More sensational versions add disappearances and crimes.
Those dramatic accounts should not be treated as established history without documentary evidence. For this reading journey, Cortijo Jurado is a place around which stories of haunting have gathered.
La Santa Compaña · Galicia
The Santa Compaña is a procession of souls said to walk through the night. In a familiar version, a living person leads the company carrying a cross. Meeting the procession is regarded as an omen, often associated with a death to come.
Popular tales describe ways to avoid joining it, such as drawing a protective circle or refusing to accept what its leader offers. These details vary between versions. The legend is not confined to Halloween: its nighttime journeys belong to a wider Galician folklore.
El duende de Zaragoza · a reported case from 1934
In 1934, voices and laughter were reported as coming from a kitchen stove in a building at Gascón de Gotor, 2, in Zaragoza. The story became known as the duende de la hornilla and drew the attention of neighbours, journalists, police and judicial authorities.
The municipal account records that proceedings were archived after no person responsible was identified. The episode was remembered for years, and a later building at the location bears the name Duende.
What is documented is the reporting, investigation and public interest. Calling the voice a duende was part of the story’s interpretation; the record does not establish that a supernatural being existed.
Useful Spanish for telling a mysterious story
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| una leyenda | a legend |
| un relato | a tale / an account |
| una castaña | a chestnut |
| un disfraz | a costume |
| una pesadilla | a nightmare |
| un alma en pena | a restless soul |
| Se cuenta que… | The story goes that… |
| Según la leyenda… | According to the legend… |
Choose one of the six stories and introduce it in Spanish with Según la leyenda… or Se cuenta que…. Which detail gives the story its atmosphere?
Sources and further reading
Spain.info: autumn traditions and All Saints’ Day
Smithsonian: Halloween’s historical layers
Centro de Estudios Montañeses: Cantabrian folklore, including the Guajona
PCCD: La Pesanta, with the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic dictionary entry
Museos de Tenerife: Guayota el maligno
Turismo de Galicia: the Santa Compaña and regional legends
Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza: the duende de la hornilla
