Halloween Facts and Tricks

Halloween Facts

Halloween is celebrated in many countries around the world. It's most famous today as an evening when children 'trick or treat', knocking on doors in their neighborhood, dressed in costumes and hoping for treats. Halloween, or 'All Hallow's Evening' is a Western Christian yearly celebration that falls on October 31st, also known as the feast of All Saints. It's believed that it was influenced by European harvest festivals and festivals of the dead. The word Halloween was not used until the 1500s.

Interesting Halloween Facts:

• Another name for trick-or-treating is guising. It evolved from a Celtic tradition. They would put food and treats out for spirits they believed roamed the streets during Samhain. Samhain was a festival to mark the end of the Celtic calendar each year.
• The Christian roots of trick-or-treating are different than the Celtic roots. They called it ‘souling' which was a medieval Christian ritual of going door to door, exchanging prayers for the dead for soul cakes.
• Some believe that Halloween has pagan roots while others believe it is completely from Christian roots.
• It's believed that Halloween has been around for 6000 years.
• All Hallows' Eve is the night before All Hallows' Day.
• The first Jack-o-lanterns were not made from pumpkins. They were made from turnips.
• The largest pumpkin was grown by Norm Crave. His pumpkin was 836 pounds and he broke the world record in 1993.
• Commercially, Halloween is second only to Christmas in the amount of money spent.
• Witch comes from the word 'wicce', an old English word that means 'wise woman'. Witches, or wiccan were once very respected. They held one of the two main meetings on Halloween.
• A person with a fear of Halloween has samhainophobia.
• Owls were once believed to be witches. An owl's call was thought to mean someone was going to die. This was a popular belief in Medieval Europe.
• When the movie Halloween was made in 1978, the mask that Michael Meyers wore was actually a Star Trek mask of William Shatner. The producers of the movie were on a tight budget.
• The first time trick-or-treating was mentioned in North America in print was in 1927, in Alberta, Canada. The town's name was Blackie.
• The colors most common on Halloween are black and orange. Black is a symbol of darkness and death, while orange is a symbol of endurance and strength, often associated with autumn and harvest.
• The black color so popular on Halloween is a reminder that Halloween itself was a festival marking the border between life and death.
• Harry Houdini, possibly the most famous magician in history, died on Halloween night in 1926. His death was the result of three stomach punches that brought on appendicitis.
• Legend states that if you put your clothes on inside out and walk backwards on Halloween, you'll see a witch at midnight.
• The majority of children, 50%, prefer to get chocolate in their trick-or-treat bags on Halloween. Only 10% prefer gum, while 24% prefer candy that isn't chocolate.
• The tradition of dressing up in costumes on Halloween dates back to the ancient Celtics. They believed that by dressing up as spirits and demons they would blend in with the real spirits and demons roaming the streets and would be safe.
• Common Halloween activities today include costume parties, trick-or-treating, apple bobbing, pranks, watching horror films and carving pumpkins.
• In the Village in New York City they have an annual Halloween parade which brings over 2 million spectators. It has more than 50,000 participants in the parade.
• Anoka, Minnesota and Salem, Massachusetts have called themselves the Halloween capital of the world.