When you’re single, it’s easy to feel lonely on Valentine’s Day. It’s a holiday that is all about celebrating love, and if you’re not feeling that, you’re bound to feel left out. You would think Valentine’s Day is the most painful day of the year for single people, but it’s actually not.

While Valentine’s Day is a holiday that people have some pretty complicated feelings about, there’s a spookier day of the year that actually makes single people feel a whole lot lonelier. It’s not so much the yearning for a companion that brings out these complicated feelings, however.

Study finds that many single people think Halloween is lonelier than Valentine’s Day.

Dating.com conducted a survey to gather single people’s feelings about the next major holiday coming up on the calendar, Halloween. They shared the results on LinkedIn. 58% of respondents reported that they felt like Halloween was worse for single people than Valentine’s Day was.

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It may sound strange. After all, isn’t Halloween all about spooky fun, while Valentine’s Day is for love? Technically, that’s true, but Halloween is a time when families tend to gather and spend time together. Think about the kids that come to your door every year, dressed up and ready to shout, “Trick-or-treat!” More often than not, those kids come with parents looking on, watching them, or even joining in on the costumed fun. Single people don’t have that.

Seventy-nine percent of single people said they experienced a feeling of loneliness when they saw those happy families trick-or-treating together, while they had no one to celebrate with. And 59% of singles admitted to getting emotional or even tearing up when families approached their door to trick-or-treat while they were all alone.

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This all leads single people to take some pretty drastic measures.

Obviously, no one wants to look lonely to other people. Although everyone experiences loneliness from time to time, there’s still a stigma that surrounds the emotion. Society tells us that loneliness is bad and people who are lonely should be pitied. So, single people feeling alone on Halloween do what they can to hide this.

A whopping 77% of the survey’s participants confessed to pretending to have plans for the holiday, even though they actually didn’t. Meanwhile, 43% acted like they were busy, so they didn’t have to face their loneliness. And, 62% felt lonely but pretended to be fine to avoid any awkwardness.

Often, we think of people hanging out with friends for Halloween. That’s why there are so many Halloween parties, right? But what if you have no one to go to the party with? Or, what if you just want to stay in and watch scary movies, but you’re on the couch by yourself? Of course, that would feel lonely.

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It’s not surprising that single people feel lonely on Halloween, but the issue of loneliness is much bigger than that one day.

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared loneliness a public health epidemic in May of 2023. An APA poll found that 30% of American adults felt lonely at least once a week, while 10% said they felt lonely on a daily basis.

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An editorial published in eClinical Medicine noted that the holidays are a tough time for many people, which leaves them feeling lonely. Typically, we think of the holiday season as starting with Thanksgiving and lasting through New Year’s, but Halloween is right around the same time and could really be considered part of the same season. The editorial writers pointed out that loneliness can cause problems for mental and physical health, including depression and anxiety, as well as heart disease and diabetes.

During a time in history when people feel lonelier than ever, it’s no wonder that single people feel alone on a day like Halloween. Trick-or-treating likely feels like it’s just rubbing this in their faces. Be kind to your single friends this Halloween, or, if you’re single, show yourself the kindness you deserve.

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.