Hallowe'en celebrated by seven million at 70,000 parties in Spain

But now, it is in full swing and celebrated almost as much as in the USA, where it has become a major date on the calendar.

Over seven million people are expected to be out partying tonight dressed as ghosts, ghouls, witches, vampires, skeletons and and zombies, with over 70,000 organised Hallowe'en parties across the country, according to fancy-dress shops, bars and restaurants.

Hallowe'en discos at an early hour are taking place in many towns for children, and kids' TV programmes have been milking the 'scary season' in Spain over the last week or so.

In fact, Hallowe'en is now one of the five biggest bar-fillers in the country, after the Christmas and New Year holidays and the pre-Lent carnivals.

One in five restaurants and bars will be decorated in keeping with the moment, hanging up pumpkins and cobwebs, organising themed menus, or with staff in ghoulish fancy dress, a survey has revealed.

A celebration that went by completely unnoticed without so much as a chocolate pumpkin on sale in the supermarket until less than a decade ago, Hallowe'en was really only celebrated as a themed night in Irish pubs from the 1980s onwards.

Now, thanks to the rapid rise in American drama and comedy serials on TV dubbed into Spanish, and Erasmus students coming back from their year abroad with tales of other traditions, it is almost as big in Spain as elsewhere in Europe.

But the last two Hallowe'ens have been tinged with collective sadness across the country as revellers remember the five young women who died in a crush during a party at the Madrid Arena on that night in 2012.

The women were aged between 17 and 20 and the venue was said to be overfilled with emergency exists sealed off, no security and practically no medical help on site, as well as with the car park set aside for young partygoers to bring their own alcohol and drink themselves unconscious.

A trial is ongoing and the party promoter is facing jail if evidence against him is upheld.