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Poll shows handful of Russians intend to celebrate Halloween

According to survey’s results, most Russians know about the festival of Halloween but only three percent plan to celebrate it

© Sergey Konkov/TASS

MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Most Russians know about the festival of Halloween but only three percent plan to celebrate it, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center said in a statement published on its website on Monday.

"Most Russians are familiar with the name Halloween, as only ten percent of respondents said they had heard it for the first time during the survey," the statement reads. "Despite being widely known, Halloween has failed to be absorbed into Russia’s (culture) - only three percent of those familiar with Halloween plan to celebrate it. The youngest respondents, aged 18 to 24 years, have shown the greatest interest in the holiday (18%)," the pollster added.

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Most of those not planning to celebrate Halloween (61%) say they do not accept it because it is part of a different culture. "Another reason for Halloween’s low popularity score in our country may be that most Russians (60% according to the recent poll) do not believe in witchcraft, horoscopes, fortune-telling and other such things. However, as many as 19% of those surveyed have superstitious beliefs," the pollster pointed out.

According to the survey’s results, Russians have difficulties in clarifying the essence of the festival, since respondents mostly link Halloween to evil forces and mention its typical attributes, including pumpkins and scary costumes. Only every tenth respondent remembered the right date of Halloween celebrations, October 31, while every fifth (18%) said that Halloween occurred sometime in October.

The nationwide telephone poll involving 1,200 people was conducted on October 25-26, 2017. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5% at the 95% confidence level.

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