Happy Halloween in Korean: 6 fan-card lines

Either 해피 할로윈, the English greeting written in Hangul, or 할로윈 즐겁게 보내세요, have a fun Halloween, in the shape Korean uses for every holiday wish. Halloween falls on October 31 in Korea as everywhere, but it is not a holiday there: no day off, no trick-or-treating at the door. So the greeting is a borrowed one, and a fan card sent from the US on October 31 carries your holiday to Korea rather than meeting one that is already there.

The spelling is the part worth knowing. Korea's National Institute of Korean Language lists the standard loanword spelling as 핼러윈, but fans, shops and most newspapers write 할로윈, and that is the form our translator uses. We ran Halloween sentences in English, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, French and German through the pipeline that turns fan messages from 28 languages into Korean, and 할로윈 came back in all 30 runs; 핼러윈 never did. “Happy Halloween” itself came back as 해피 할로윈 in 17 of 18 runs. One thing did not survive the trip: “have a spooky night” became 무서운 밤 보내세요, literally a wish for a scary night, in 2 of 3 runs. Spooky is a fun word in English and has no fun twin in Korean, so the lines below wish a good Halloween instead.

Costume is 코스튬 in Korean fan writing, and the pattern is 코스튬 기대할게요, I'll be looking forward to the costume, before the photos, and 최고예요, the best, after them. Korean fans also say 분장 for the makeup side of a look and 콘셉트 for a themed shoot or performance, so a horror-styled comeback is a 콘셉트, not a 코스튬. Our translator had no trouble here: costume, 仮装, fantasia and déguisement all came back as 코스튬, 12 of 12 runs, and “your horror concept” came back as 공포 콘셉트 every time.

The second line is the one to keep. 어떤 모습이어도 제 눈엔 최고예요, whatever you look like, to my eyes you are the best, works for a vampire, a cartoon character, or a group that skipped Halloween entirely this year. It makes no claim about what the idol did, which matters when you write the card before October 31 and post it after.

Nothing, if you mean the phrase itself. “Trick or treat” came back from our translator as 트릭 오어 트릿, the English sounds spelled out in Hangul, in 3 of 3 runs. That is how a Korean newspaper explains the custom, not something a Korean fan writes to an idol, because there is nothing behind it: going door to door for candy is not a Korean custom. Candy itself, though, translates cleanly. 사탕 is candy, and “instead of candy, all my love” came through as 사탕 대신 … 사랑 in every run.

So the lines below keep the treat and drop the trick. 사탕 대신 사랑을 가득 보내요 swaps the candy for love, and 올해 할로윈 제일 달콤한 선물은 여러분이에요 calls the idol the sweetest treat of the year. 여러분 is the polite “you all” for a group; writing to a solo artist, put their name in its place. All six lines on this page are Hangul only. 할로윈, 코스튬 and 사탕 are loanwords written in Korean letters, so every word survives the handwriting grid and the Hangul-only card. Write “Halloween” in Roman letters and it drops off the card; write 할로윈 and it stays.