HALLOWEEN IN SANTA GERTRUDIS

Halloween is a huge part of island life, arriving just as the long summer season draws to a close. Across Ibiza, schools welcome kids in fancy dress, villages organise their own celebrations and the grown-ups have an equally impressive calendar of parties to look forward to. With All Saints’ Day, Día de Todos los Santos, falling on 1 November, there’s little reason for anyone to hurry home. From Santa Eulària to Sant Antoni and Ibiza town, Halloween is celebrated with enthusiasm, but Santa Gertrudis has become a particular favourite with families.

By early evening, the village is absolutely swarming with little witches, skeletons, vampires and ghosts, many still wearing the costumes they’ve proudly worn to school that morning. The church square fills with families, kids run between the playground and the annual funfair, and the streets are busy with groups making their way from shop to shop collecting sweets. Almost every little business joins in, with bowls of sweets waiting behind counters, and the old ice cream shop Zero Gradi that’s been part of the village for as long as anyone can remember even hands out free ice creams to the kids. By the end of the evening, their trick-or-treat bags are usually overflowing.

The atmosphere is brilliant. Restaurant terraces full in the square, bars packed and familiar faces appear everywhere beneath increasingly elaborate costumes. Getting a table for dinner requires a little forward planning, as the village fills quickly and reservations are almost essential. Between the playground, the funfair and the excitement of trick-or-treating, the kids have plenty to keep them occupied, while parents catch up with friends and enjoy the celebrations well into the evening.

There’s something particularly lovely about seeing Santa Gertrudis like this. The village is already such a meeting place for island families, but on Halloween the whole centre seems to belong to the kids. They wander around comparing costumes, showing off their growing collections of sweets and disappearing back towards the fair for another ride, while the church and surrounding terraces remain full of people enjoying the night.

For families growing up in Ibiza, Halloween has become an annual ritual that the kids begin talking about months in advance. A late autumn evening filled with costumes, fairground rides, ice cream and far too many sweets, celebrated in a village that embraces every bit of it. Another little chapter in growing up in Ibiza, and an island ritual that returns with the autumn each year.