Treat Count 2023: Which B.C. neighbourhoods have the most trick-or-treaters at Halloween?

A lot of British Columbians have Halloween traditions. Some, like fireworks in the Lower Mainland, aremore particular than others.

But the deep-rooted customs of All Hallow's Eve decorating your house and giving candy to costumed visitors at night have endured across the province, even through a global pandemic.

CBC British Columbia and the Simon Fraser University City Program, which promotes citizen participation in civic issues,have teamed up once again to track the neighbourhoods with the most visitors on Halloween night.

Andy Yan,director of the SFU City Program, says Halloween remains one of the best ways to track how the "spirit" of civic participation manifests in different neighbourhoods.

"It's one of those things that everybody seems to get into because it's not religious," he said.

Yan said he wants to know how the influx of newcomers to B.C. and Metro Vancouver gel with the region's Halloween customs.

He said one of the years he did the treat tracker, he encountered an international student who knew nothing about Halloween and gave out ramen noodles instead of candy calling it just another way that the "generosity of spirit" manifested itself.

"Diverse cultures may or may not get Halloween," he said. "That's just how Vancouver changes."

How to participate

Once again, theCBC is asking you to help us find the spookiest neighbourhood in B.C., and the one with the most treats.

You can do that byfilling out this form to report the number of trick-or-treaters who came to your house on Tuesday night.

Count the number of costumed visitorsthat came knocking on your door, tell us what you gave them, and show us how you prepared for their arrival.

Then, watch as a colour-coded map reveals the Halloween hotspots and no-shows across B.C. on Tuesday night.

To get an idea of how it works, you can view last year's results at this link.

We're also bringing back a question from last year about inflation, and whether it'saffecting your Halloween.

Yan said historicallytheDouglas Park neighbourhood in Vancouver and the Queen's Park neighbourhood in New Westminsterhaveshone duringHalloween.

He also said he's interested to see how non-traditional Halloween celebrations like daytime events and community festivals are marked across a province that is becoming more diverse by the year.

Fill outthe surveyand watch the map update with B.C.'s spookiest neighbourhoods: