This year, more than ever, we all need a little fun in our lives. That’s where Halloween comes in. It’s the fun holiday that lets us be creative and be something other than ourselves. Thanksgiving and Christmas tug on our emotions and are family-centered. Halloween is the all for fun, no strings attached, go out and have fun holiday.
Even this year with the virus reining in many activities, Halloween doesn’t have to be a casualty too. Sure, it may not look the same, but we can still have fun by tweaking some events. Traditional trick-or-treating may not be a good idea, but pumpkin carving, scarecrow contests, bonfires and many other spooky events are just fine.
Besides the witches, ghosts, goblins, black cats and other goulish things that go bump-in-the-Halloween night, there are many other weird facts about this fun holiday that I never knew. Did you know that:
*Halloween has been around some 6000 years, originating with the old Celtic festival of Samhain. The Irish Celts believed that the ghosts of the dead would roam the earth on this day. So, people would dress up, disguising themselves as demons and spirits to escape the notice of the real spirits wandering the streets during Samhain. As they roamed, they would leave treats for the spirits. They would also light bonfires to ward off ghosts.
*Speaking of bonfires, these fires were lit to ensure that the sun would return after the long winter. Druid priests would throw the bones of cattle into the flames, so eventually the “bone fires” became what we know as bonfires.
*Trick or treating has existed since Medieval times. Back then it was known as “guising” or “souling” where both children and adults roamed the streets in costumes begging for food and prayers in exchange for songs.
*Jack O’ Lanterns were once made from turnips, potatoes, beets and other root vegetables. Legend has it that a man named Stingy Jack tricked the devil a couple of times. So, when he died, the devil gave him a single burning coal which he put in a carved-out turnip and his restless soul has been roaming the earth with it ever since. In America, pumpkins were easier to come by and made for better carving.
Black cats, spiders and bats were all tied to Wiccans and witches in the Middle Ages and are thought to bring bad luck. Black cats especially got a bad reputation at Halloween even though some thought that they protected their masters from dark powers. For this reason, many humane societies and pet adoption agencies will not let black cats be adopted for the month of October, for fear that they may be used and harmed in Halloween rituals.
*Some decorations have become too true to life. In a few instances, some dead bodies in Halloween displays were real corpses. Imagine being the one to find that!
*Orange and black are the official colors of Halloween, with orange representing harvest and black signifying death and darkness.
*Pumpkins are the signature fruit of Halloween…and yes, they are a fruit. Illinois produces up to five times more pumpkins than any other state, having 15,000 acres of gourd growing land which translates to around 500 million pounds of pumpkins each year. The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 836 pounds back in 1993.
*The fastest pumpkin carving lasted 16.47 seconds and was accomplished by Steve Clarke. His Jack O’ Lantern had to have a complete face with eyes, nose, mouth and ears.
*Some fast carvers are needed to put on the Great Jack O’ Lantern Blaze in New York’s Hudson Valley every year. More than 7000 carved pumpkins are turned into pumpkin planetariums, a 25-foot tall replica of the Stature of Liberty and other exhibits. However, it is Kiene, NH, that holds the record for the most Jack O’ Lanterns on display. In October, 2013, they broke the record with 30,581 lit carved pumpkins around town.
*Anoka, MN lays claim to the oldest Halloween celebration in the United States. In 1920 they started holding a Halloween parade and bonfire. The reason…they wanted to curb pranks that loosed cows on Main Street and upended outhouses. For this same reason, silly string is banned in Hollywood on Halloween. Violators face a $1000 fine there.
*The night before Halloween is known as Mischief Night or Goosey Night, especially on the East coast and the Midwest.
*These pranksters are not just kids. It is estimated that by 2005, over half of all adults celebrated Halloween and now over 70 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds are the biggest spenders. The most popular children’s costumes are princesses and superheroes while adults still prefer to be witches. And, let’s not forget about our furry friends. More and more people are buying costumes for their pets, in 2019 pets were more likely to be pumpkins than anything else. The most googled costume is It, the creepy clown by Stephen King.
*Americans spend six billion
dollars a year on Halloween candy. This accounts for one quarter of all the
candy sold in the United States for the year. It also translates to 600 million
pounds of candy, with 90 million of that being chocolate…sorry, Easter Bunny,
the ghouls have outdone you!
*Skittles tops the Halloween candy, over M & M’s, Snickers and Reese’s Cups, according to CandyStore.com. Folks’ least favorite is candy corn. Also called butter cream candies and chicken feed, candy corn was invented by George Renninger, a candy maker at Wunderle Candy Co. in Philadelphia, PA, in the 1880’s. It made sense that it was called chicken feed because that’s what corn was used for back then and people didn’t eat corn then like they do now. Because of it being tri-colored (which was revolutionary for the times), it was harder to produce so it was only available from March through November. Soon, and largely because of the colors, the sweet treat became associated with fall and Halloween.
*Candy is so much a part of Halloween that it is rumored that candy makers lobbied to extend Daylight Savings Time into November so it would stay light longer, thus letting kids trick-or-treat longer and forcing folks to buy even more candy…anything for a buck!
*Ironically, Harry Houdini, the magician and illusionist, died on Halloween day, 1926 from complications of appendicitis.
*As much as it is a fun holiday, some people actually have a fear of Halloween which is called samhainophobia. Phasmophobia is the fear of ghosts and wiccaphobia is the fear of witches.
Halloween is the second largest commercial holiday in America, following Christmas, which never should have become a commercial holiday…but that’s another story.
This Halloween promises to be a little extra special since October’s second full moon falls on this day, making it a blue moon. Even though most Halloween pictures depict a full moon, full moons only occur on Halloween every 18 or 19 years.
This has been a tough year. Maybe this Halloween offers us all a chance to just have a little old- fashioned fun for at least a night. Embrace your goblins, big or small, carve a punkin or two, load up on your favorite candy and have a little ghoulish fun!
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