Halloween falls on a Saturday: what is already booked for the Noche de los Finaos

This year 31 October falls on a Saturday, and the island fits two celebrations into that one night: Halloween, with pumpkins and haunted houses in the resorts, and the Noche de los Finaos, which Lanzarote has kept since long before the pumpkins arrived.

What is already fixed

Town halls publish their programmes around the middle of the month, so for now the diary is short. But four dates are set:

• Thursday 29 October · Haría — Noche de finados, a theatrical walk by Actúa Teatro bringing back Canarian legends, rituals and customs around the dead. Time and meeting point still unpublished: culturalanzarote.com will have them.
• Saturday 31 October, 12:00 · Yaiza — Pantalla Chinija, children's cinema at the Casa de la Cultura.
• Saturday 31 October, 20:00 · Teguise — Noche de Finaos in the Plaza de la Constitución, in the heart of the old town.
• Saturday 31 October, 20:00 · Femés — Mujeres que Cuentan, oral storytelling at La Casona de Femés.

None of the four has an announced price: at the Finaos, as a rule, you simply walk in.

The Finaos, briefly

«Finaos» comes from finados, the departed. It is All Saints' Eve as the Canarian countryside kept it: the family around the fire remembering its own dead, and on the table roasted chestnuts, pine cones, dried fruit, figs, almonds, anisette and sweet wine. The village parranda played isas, folías and romances, and afterwards everyone walked to the graveyard.

That private vigil has turned into a square-sized party: chestnuts and pine cones on the embers, wine and ron miel going round, folk groups playing late in the old towns.

One detail worth knowing, because it saves disappointment: the ranchos de ánimas — the groups who went door to door singing and praying for the souls, in return for coins towards masses — became ranchos de Pascua on Lanzarote. They still sing, but at another time of year. Do not expect one at the Finaos.

What to expect when the programmes land

In recent years the pattern has barely changed. Arrecife turns its centre into a stage: dramatised scenes and storytelling between the Castillo de San Gabriel and the Recova Municipal, children's workshops in the afternoon, traditional music and a tasting to close. San Bartolomé stages theatre at the Casa Ajei. Femés lays on hot chocolate, workshops and an open-air parranda. Teguise opens the old cemetery, the one from 1814. Haría stops at César Manrique's grave. And on the other side of the night, the haunted houses and fancy-dress contests of Costa Teguise, Tías, Tinajo and Playa Blanca.

None of this is confirmed for 2026: we set it out so you know what to look for. As soon as the town halls publish, we will update this page.

Doing it properly

A Saturday the 31st is a rare gift: there is room for both. Afternoon workshops with the children, an early dinner, Finaos in the square at eight, and the rest of the night wherever you like. Bring a layer: at the end of October, once the sun goes, it genuinely cools down inland.