Pumpkins, skeletons and spiderwebs decorated the houses in the Georgetown neighborhood, but the streets were quieter than usual on Halloween night. 

This year, while many of the traditional Halloween activities in Washington, D.C., like trick-or-treating and visiting various embassies in costume, were allowed to take place, the festivities appeared to be less popular than in previous years amid ongoing public health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Janice Day, a resident of the Georgetown neighborhood who was handing out candy to trick-or-treaters from her front porch, turnout was lower than she expected this year.

“It is surprisingly light on this street, but I have to say, prior to the pandemic it was pretty crowded. I don’t know if some people are reluctant,” Day said in an interview with The Hoya. “There were so many decorations this year that I thought that meant that there would be a lot of trick-or-treaters, but not so much.”

Trick-or-treating was permitted in the District this year, but Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) warned residents about the increased risk of contracting COVID-19 for unvaccinated young children and advised outdoor activities were safer than indoor activities in her guidelines for Halloween and Día de los Muertos.

The government’s vaccination initiative for children ages 5 to 11 will not begin until Nov. 8.

In 2020, the District guidelines declared trick-or-treating to be a high-risk activity and instead encouraged other socially distanced activities, like driving around to look at decorations or using a candy chute to deliver candy as a safer alternative to reaching into a communal bowl. 

Although Georgetown residents like Day said there appeared to be less trick-or-treaters in the Georgetown neighborhood than in the years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many locals still put a lot of effort into making their homes look festive for the Halloween season by adorning their windows and porches with carved pumpkins, fall flowers and spooky decorations, according to Day.

According to Zoe Persina, who brought her children to the Georgetown neighborhood to go trick-or-treating this Halloween, it was nice to see some trick-or-treaters and beautifully decorated houses.

“My favorite part is all of the decorations, especially along Q Street,” Persina said in an interview with The Hoya. 

According to Maddie Morgan (COL ’24), who trick-or-treated in the Georgetown neighborhood with friends, the decorations and presence of children dressed up in costumes made the area feel very festive.

“It was nice seeing all the decorations and a lot of kids trick-or-treating and people handing out candy, which was cute,” Morgan said in a phone interview with The Hoya. “It was definitely more of a Halloween feeling, I would say, in the Georgetown neighborhood.”

In addition to trick-or-treating in Georgetown, other Halloween activities were also impacted last year. The annual Embassy Row trick-or-treating program was moved to an online format, with candy delivered to people’s homes before they attended a virtual event. 

While traditions like embassy trick-or-treating were able to take place this year, the celebrations were underwhelming, according to Morgan, who also visited the embassies with a group of friends.

“This is my first Halloween in D.C., and we heard some people talking about trick-or-treating at the embassies and how in previous years they had done that, so we just decided to try it out,” Morgan said. “A lot of them had their lights off and weren’t doing trick-or-treating, so we didn’t actually get to trick-or-treat at any of them.”

Still, to Day, even if Halloween was not completely back to normal, it was an improvement from last year, and it was exciting to greet trick-or-treaters and neighbors.

“I enjoyed seeing all the children in their costumes and also seeing my neighbors,” Day said.