The best content guide for a creepy Halloween | Free resource packs
It’s said that Halloween is the scariest night of the year. But this year, after two years of pandemic, Halloween isn’t so much about being scary – it’s more about having fun, doing different things, and celebrating together. In this article we suggest different ideas to help everyone have a great time, and we provide you with free resources to boost your designs and to help you make your events a success. So don’t be scared… and read on.
What are we celebrating on Halloween?
We all know that Halloween is a moment when both life and death are celebrated. At this time, fear isn’t incompatible with happiness and fun and the underworld appears on our streets to help us see that we are two sides of the same coin. But where does this celebration come from? Is it really a modern celebration? Is it a celebration exported all over the world from the United States? Join us in this journey and we’ll put an end to some of your doubts.
Some of you may think that Halloween, a word that comes from All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve, is a new tradition, but many historians agree that it can be traced back to Neolithic times in ancient Gaelic Ireland. The origin seems to have its roots in the celebration of Samhain, a Gaelic pagan festival. The rituals and practices of this day continued to develop during the 10th century and throughout the Middle Ages. The celebration as we know it today was influenced by numerous cultures and countries before reaching our day. Now, the costumes, candy, trick-or-treating, pumpkin lanterns and pranks have reached every corner of the world.
It has also become a huge commercial attraction as it takes on the role of the starting signal for the highest sales of the year. Therefore, if you have a business, you shouldn’t stand by watching as others make huge sales. In this article we’ll be providing you with numerous resources that you can use for yourself or your business, for your event or for your social networks. Dare to read on?
Why is Halloween good for your business?
According to the prestigious statistics website Statista, in 2021, U.S. consumers were expected to spend an all-time high of ten billion dollars in the Halloween season. Compared to 2020, this is an increase of two billion dollars. Average spending per person was also notably higher in 2021, with more than $100 spent on Halloween holiday items. Expected spending on spooky Halloween-related items increased by about ten dollars compared to 2020 and was the highest in 16 years.
For all these reasons, Halloween is an ideal opportunity for businesses to connect with customers in a special way. It’s an opportunity to:
- Grab customers’ attention: Decorating your store or customizing your website for Halloween can grab people’s attention simply because it looks different. People have Halloween in mind at this time of the year, so it’s an easy way to attract them.
- Sell seasonal products: If your company sells candy, decorations, costumes or clothing, Halloween will increase your sales.
- Identification with the brand: Potential customers who love Halloween will feel identified if they perceive that your brand does too and therefore will be more likely to purchase your brand’s products and services, since you share values and connect as a brand. It is extremely simple to show you love Halloween, just decorate your site or share content related to Halloween.
- Attract people: Eye-catching decorations, attractive posters and signs, a special event or a giveaway of freebies and candy can help you attract new people to your business. Even if they don’t buy anything, a positive experience can keep them coming back or lead to them recommending your brand to their friends.
How can Freepik help you celebrate Halloween?
If you’re reading this, we’re sure it’s not the first time you’ve heard of us, and you’ll be aware that we’re both the best website for downloading resources and the best value for money. I know we’re talking about Halloween, but even so, this isn’t a fantasy – it’s a fact.
Our Halloween resources can help you generate the perfect campaign or simply make your designs look more professional. Here are some tips that will be of great help to you.
Halloween classics always help
Use classic Halloween symbols: Witches, ghosts, zombies and black cats, for example, as they are universally recognized and therefore safe bets for your Halloween designs. With our superb Halloween cartoons and our clip art you’ll have terrifyingly wonderful designs.
Flavor your images with some wit
Although a picture is worth a thousand words, the words that accompany the images enhance them and make them look better. Therefore, make good use of sayings, puns, double entendres or your sense of humor… This will make the reader feel intelligent and create a feeling of complicity between you. Our resources for Halloween Social Media posts are great allies to boost your creativity.
Use a recognizable color palette
Orange and black have become the predominant ‘official’ Halloween colors, so it may seem obvious to use them in your designs. However, they’re complicated colors that don’t always look great, so they should be used sparingly and always taking care to give priority to your visual style. One approach is to use other colors, and add in orange or black occasionally in certain details. If you use Freepik resources, forget about worrying about matching colors correctly: our designers have created the perfect visuals taking into account all the rules and color psychology.
A good base always helps
Creating Halloween-themed flyers, banners, posters and images such as pumpkins, is now an easy task. These backgrounds are your starting point to put the frights on everyone, but in a good way, of course! Get these spooky resources for all your projects! And if you want to make your designs online, your solution is here – Wepik. Pumpkins, candies, costumes? Check out our Halloween templates and surprise everyone with your scary designs. Choose your favorite, edit it online and download it for free.
Photographs and videos
We all recognize the versatility of photography in designs and the power that audiovisual resources pack. We’ve got a wide collection of high-quality images for you to use in any project. From photographs of spooky illuminated pumpkins and haunting images of ghosts to witches of all kinds. Your imagination’s the only limit. In addition, our bank of video clips will provide material to include in any audiovisual montage you create to impact your audience.
If you want to make a scary presentation for school, or for that special meeting, you can build on our carefully chosen Halloween presentation templates.
Although Halloween has spread all over the world, each country brings its own culture and tradition to the celebration, and one of the most striking results is seen in Latin America: The Day of the Dead.
The Day of the Dead
The Day of the Dead is a pre-Hispanic tradition rife with symbolism, legends and stories that represent the poles of joy and sadness, life and death. It’s held on October 31 and November 1 and 2, because it’s believed that the souls of the deceased return on those nights to enjoy the dishes and flowers that their relatives offer them. They arrive in an orderly manner, and those who had the misfortune of dying a month before the celebration are not given an offering, since it’s believed that they didn’t have time to ask permission to come, so they only serve as helpers of other souls.
The offering of candles, food and decorations is ready from October 28 for those who died tragically, through violence or in accidents. The 30th and 31st are days dedicated to all the children who died without having been baptized (known as limbitos) and to the youngest souls. The 1st is All Saints’ Day, which celebrates all those who led an exemplary life as well as children.
The 2nd, on the other hand, is actually called the Day of the Dead, and is the main holiday in countries such as Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Venezuela, Guatemala and Peru. The celebration begins at dawn with the ringing of church bells and the practice of certain rites, such as decorating graves and making altars on the tombstones, and this has great significance for the families of the dead because it’s believed that this helps to lead the souls in the right direction after death.
Among the most important symbols of the Day of the Dead is La Catrina, whose origin dates back to 1912, when she was created by José Guadalupe Posada —a Mexican engraver and cartoonist— in order to mock the social classes of the time. This symbol has become so important that it has transcended the Day of the Dead celebration to become a national symbol in Mexico. In Freepik you’ll find numerous resources, from skulls and flowers to altars of the dead, to represent the unique aspects of Central and Latin American culture.
Free resources to celebrate Halloween
One of the traditions of Halloween is a giveaway, so although we won’t be giving you candy, we will sweeten your day with an amazing collection of freebies, specially designed to take your designs up a notch and make your life easier.
In this collection you’ll find:
- 5 vectors
- In these free resources you’ll find a fun, modern illustration of a Halloween pumpkin handing out candy in the middle of a forest, accompanied by funny little ghosts.
- There’s also a collection of illustrations in vintage style including bats, candles, pumpkins, poisons, moons, bones and amputated limbs.
- A versatile background for a cemetery at night.
- A banner to promote your Halloween event starring a cat and the ever-present pumpkins.
- A collection of 4 Halloween designs for your Instagram stories.
- 10 high-quality photos
- Product photos of terrifying pumpkins.
- Voodoo dolls.
- Funny everyday scenes of a peculiar Frankenstein family.
- Spooky Happy Halloween photo montages.
- 5 editable resources in PSD format
- Backgrounds with 3D renders with Halloween elements
- A Facebook Ads template with a Halloween design inspired by Flat Design
- A collection of editable Instagram posts and stories to use on social networks.
