In Hocus Pocus, Allison is the one who actually knows what Halloween is supposed to be about.
Early in the 1993 movie, new-to-Salem teenager Max Dennison is already over the local history lessons about the Sanderson sisters. When the class discusses Halloween, he dismisses the whole thing with the line that everyone knows it was invented by the candy companies. Allison steps in and corrects him: “It just so happens that Halloween is based on the ancient feast called All Hallow’s Eve. It’s the one night of the year where the spirits of the dead can return to Earth.”
That short exchange does a lot. It shows Allison as the grounded, knowledgeable one who takes the holiday (and the town’s witch lore) seriously, while Max is the skeptic who needs convincing.
It also sets up the central idea the movie runs with: on this particular night, the boundary between the living and the dead is thinner, which is why lighting the Black Flame Candle can bring the Sanderson sisters back.
From there, Max, Allison, and little sister Dani end up at the old Sanderson house, Max lights the candle to impress Allison, and the three witches (Winifred, Sarah, and Mary) return with one night to steal the lives of children before sunrise turns them to dust. The rest of the film is the kids, plus the immortal black cat Thackery Binx, racing to stop them.
Allison’s line is a simplified version of the real history. Halloween as we know it grew out of overlapping traditions.
The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter; it was believed that the boundary between the world of the living and the dead grew thin, allowing spirits to cross over. Later, the Christian church established All Saints’ Day (All Hallows) on November 1 to honor the saints, with the evening before becoming All Hallows’ Eve, the origin of the name “Halloween.”
All Souls’ Day on November 2 further focused on remembering the dead. Over centuries these observances blended with older folk customs around disguises, fires, and honoring or warding off spirits.
By the time Irish and Scottish immigrants brought versions of these practices to North America, the holiday continued to evolve into the costume, candy, and jack-o’-lantern traditions most people know today.
In the movie, Allison’s explanation is short and a little romanticized, but it captures the core idea that still hangs over the story: this is the one night the dead (or, in the Sanderson sisters’ case, the long-dead witches) might find their way back.
Max starts the film rolling his eyes at all of it. By the end, he’s learned the hard way that on All Hallow’s Eve, some of those old stories aren’t just stories.
