After 1:59 on Halloween Night, the Clock Says 1:00 Again

HALLOWEEN · BREWSTER TO PROVINCETOWN · THURSDAY TO SUNDAY

Four days, eight towns, in start-time order, with two library parades and the hour the clocks hand back Sunday.

6 min read · A Celebrate Lower Cape spotlight · Checked Oct. 28

The first costumes of the weekend gather at the Brewster Ladies' Library at 10:30 Thursday morning, and the library's own calendar gives them a route. The parade marches to the Brewster General Store for treats and songs, then on to First Parish Church, Uncle Pete's Chowder House and the Brewster Baptist Church, with local musician Paul Kehoe along as a special guest.

An hour and fifteen minutes after the parade sets off, in Chatham, the Orpheum starts a five-film horror marathon. That's the range of a Lower Cape Halloween in 2026: it runs four days, from a library parade to a $1,000 costume prize in Provincetown, and it lands on the one weekend of the year when the clocks change.

So how much Halloween fits between Thursday morning in Brewster and Sunday in Kate Gould Park, and which parts are already gone? This is the weekend in time order, town by town, the way you'd drive it.

One ticket, five horror films

The Orpheum's Horror Show Marathon starts at 11:45 a.m. Thursday with Poltergeist, Misery, The Ring, Scream and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. One ticket covers all five, seating is general admission, and the theater says you can come and go, with a 5 to 10 minute break between films. Each film is also sold on its own.

Thursday night splits by temperament. Back in Brewster, Cape Rep has True Tales of the Paranormal with Adam Berry, 7:30 to 9 p.m., at $40. Berry won Ghost Hunters Academy and went on to Ghost Hunters, the show that taped an episode at an Orleans inn in 2010. Twenty people can pay $100 for a VIP ticket that adds a ghost hunt with him after the show.

In Provincetown, the Crown & Anchor's pumpkin-carving party runs 7 to 9 p.m. with no cover, and pumpkins and carving supplies are provided while they last.

Harwich's parade ends at Town Hall

Friday morning, Harwich runs the Thursday idea again. At the Brooks Free Library, young children meet at 10:30 to hear a book and sing a few Halloween songs, then march to Town Hall to collect candy. It's free and needs no registration.

Two library parades, a day apart, both gathering at 10:30: Brewster's ends at a Baptist church, Harwich's at Town Hall. The library keeps the afternoon too, showing Arsenic and Old Lace from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday and The Addams Family at the same hour Saturday, both free, with popcorn and costumes welcome.

Over in Brewster, the Council on Aging serves a free Halloween lunch of pizza and a spooky film from noon to 2 p.m. Friday, with a prize for the best costume. You need to call ahead to register.

Sold out Saturday, unmarked Friday

On Wednesday afternoon, the Provincetown Ghost Tours calendar marked both Halloween departures, 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday, sold out. Friday's 7 and 9 p.m. tours carried no such mark, and the company takes payment on arrival.

Wellfleet runs its own version for 15 people at a time, children included, at $20 a person, from the Historical Society's museum on Main Street. Its calendars disagree on the clock.

The district calendar lists walks at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, while the society's own page lists Monday and Thursday nights at 8 and, a few lines later, a 9 p.m. departure. Call before you put on a coat.

If you'd rather hunt for something that's really out there, Mass Audubon's Owl Prowl leaves Wellfleet Bay at 5 p.m. Friday: a slow dusk walk of under a mile and a half, listening for great horned and eastern screech owls, $14 for members and $18 for nonmembers, for adults and families with kids 10 to 17.

Friday night also has the grown-up option. Chatham Bars Inn's Adult Boo Bash runs 8 to 10 p.m., doors at 7:30, $40 with one drink, 21 and up, with The Cape Connection, a horn player and a costume contest.

Wellfleet staggers its Saturday at 1, 3 and 6

Saturday starts with a last call in Provincetown. The farmers' market by Town Hall runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Oct. 31 is the final Saturday of its 2026 season.

Then the libraries take over. Eastham's library runs trick-or-treat from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at three stops: the adult circulation desk, the children's desk and the director's office. In Brewster, Lemon Tree Village lists trick-or-treat at all the shops, all day.

In Chatham, Eldredge Public Library opens with a Monster Mash workshop at 11 for ages 5 to 10 with a grown-up, where kids sketch a monster and then build it from felt and fur to take home. Trick-or-treating inside runs until 4:30 p.m. with no registration; the library's website says it starts at 11:30, and its events calendar says 10:30.

Then Wellfleet takes the afternoon in shifts. The costume parade leaves Town Hall at 1 p.m. for a party at Baker's Field, free, with no bikes, scooters or skateboards on the route, per the Cultural District calendar.

At 3, the Trunk or Treat opens at the Wellfleet Drive-In on Route 6, free, with free hot dogs and cider, run with the Wellfleet and Eastham firefighters' relief associations. The organizer and the district calendar both say 3; the town's calendar says 3:30. At 6, Preservation Hall opens its free Pumpkin Palooza until 8: a pumpkin maze, games, free candy, a dance party and a cash bar.

In Orleans, the town did the mapping. Trick Out Orleans keeps a live map of homes that registered as trick-or-treat friendly, and three giant pumpkins at 44 Main Street, the Orleans Windmill and Triangle Park in East Orleans are waiting for your guess at their weight, online, through Nov. 2.

Truro is the quiet one. Its library held its 23rd annual Halloween party on Oct. 23, by the town calendar, and we found no Truro event on the night itself.

1:59 a.m., then 1:00 again

Saturday night belongs to the costume contests. In Orleans, Hog Island Beer Co. has the Boston Naturals from 7 to 10 p.m., with prizes for best dressed. In Chatham, the Wild Goose Tavern serves a tapas dinner from 8 p.m., with costume prizes announced at 10:30, and the Squire lists its Halloween party at 9. In Wellfleet, Studio 31, a disco-era costume party for the Outermost Performing Arts Center, runs 7 to 9 p.m.

Provincetown goes latest. The Crown & Anchor has a free Halloween cabaret, Drop Dead, from 8 to 10 p.m., then its Roaring Twenties costume ball with a $500 grand prize from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. The Red Room lists Jackie Cox's Dark Rooms at 7 p.m. as an "adults-only cabaret," then Possessed 7 at 10 p.m.: three clubs at once (the Graveyard, the Catacombs and the Cornfield Drag Barn) and a $1,000 cash prize for best costume.

The clock does something odd on the far end. Daylight time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, so after 1:59 a.m. on Halloween night, every clock in Massachusetts goes back to 1:00. The ball's listed end time, 1 a.m., is a time that happens twice that night.

Everyone else gets an extra hour of sleep after the candy. Set the microwave back before bed.

On Sunday morning, the first morning of standard time, the Chatham Chamber's dates still have the pumpkin people standing in Kate Gould Park, built by local businesses, nonprofits and neighbors, through Nov. 1.

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