Do: carve pumpkins with people in your household. Don’t: bob for apples.

The D.C. Department of Health on Tuesday released official guidelines to “to have fun and keep our community safe from COVID-19,” during during Halloween and Día de los Muertos. Officials note that many of the activities usually associated with the autumn holidays pose a high risk for spreading the coronavirus — for example, trick-or-treating, visiting crowded haunted houses, bobbing for apples, singing and dancing.

Whatever you do, officials say, the District’s mask mandate is still in effect. “A costume mask does not substitute for a surgical mask or cloth face covering,” the guidance points out. In general, the advice reflects the restrictions residents have been living with for more than six months: Outdoor activities are safer, but still a risk in big groups; the more people you interact with and the longer you interact with them, the higher the risk.

The guidance recommends finding alternative ways to celebrate, and ranks them by risk level.

Low risk alternatives include: 

• Decorating your home and holding neighborhood drive-through events.
• Carving pumpkins with people in your household.
• Holding a “trick-or-treat candy hunt” with members of your household.
• Having a virtual costume party or pumpkin carving contest.

Medium risk activities include:

• Grab-and-go trick-or-treating, where treats are lined up at the edge of a yard.
• Holding a small group costume party, using masks and social distancing (remember, costume masks don’t count).
• Visiting pumpkin patches, while maintaining social distancing.
• Creating a one-way, socially-distanced haunted forest (though, officials note, “Greater social distancing is necessary if screaming is anticipated” — a warning that also applies more generally).

Activities to avoid:

• Traditional trick-or-treating.
• Taking candy from communal candy bowls.
• Going on hayrides with people not in your household.
• Going to haunted houses.
• Bobbing for apples

Officials also ask that residents avoid traveling outside the D.C. region to attend fall festivals or other events, or participating in events that include people from outside the region.

The guidance also includes recommendations for safely celebrating Día De Los Muertos. Safe activities include preparing family recipes at home, playing music at home, and making altares for deceased relatives at home. Medium-risk activities include: visiting and decorating graves while maintaining distance from other families, and holding small outdoor gatherings with social distancing. Activities to avoid include going to large indoor celebrations with singing and dancing and crowded celebrations in cemeteries.

Montgomery and Arlington counties released their own lists of guidelines for celebrating Halloween last week, discouraging traditional trick-or-treating and carnivals in favor of families decorating their own homes, taking part in online celebrations, or watching Halloween movies at drive-in theaters.

D.C.’s guidelines came the same day as the District reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections in 4 months: 105.