Why doesn’t Britain go as wild for Halloween as America?

America’s Halloween isn’t actually frightening at all, in part a celebration of the fall. In the UK it reaches back to the Middle Ages and the Black Death

Why, after decades of commercial and cultural pressure, hasn’t the American version of Halloween really taken off in Britain? I think it’s because it is an anodyne version of something that lies much deeper between us.

I’ve spent October in New England, where every other house is wrapped in cobwebs crawling with giant spiders, and huge inflatable pumpkins perch on front lawns like lurid barrage balloons. In the UK, supermarkets and Strictly Come Dancing are determined to sell us the same story, but our Halloween still fails to reach US proportions, where more than 70% of citizens participate, spending $9.1bn on candy and costumes ranging from vampires and ghouls to Wonder Woman and Disney Princesses.