Goblins and ghouls, trick-or-treating and late night witchcraft. Halloween is a creepy crawly fun time of the year. Take your spook-o-meter up a peg this season with our list of fun Halloween facts. From the history of jack-o-lanterns to the weight of the world’s largest pumpkin, show everyone up at your next costume party and prove that you really do love Halloween.
1. It started
thousands of years ago.
The tradition of Halloween comes
from Samhain, an ancient pagan festival celebrated by Celtic
people. It took place in the United Kingdom, Ireland and northwestern France.
2- Pumpkins used to be
turnips.
The tradition of
carving a pumpkin began in Scotland and Ireland with turnips. Turnips were a very
common vegetable in Scotland and Ireland, so they were used to make spooky
lanterns with scary faces. The scarier the face, the more likely it was to
scare away evil spirits. But turnips are very hard to carve - thank goodness we
use pumpkins now. The world’s largest pumpkin weighed in at 1,054
kilograms (2,323 pounds).
3- Belsnickeling'
might have preceded trick-or-treating.
Imagine if instead of
saying "trick-or-treat," kids rang the doorbell and shouted,
"Belsnickel!" According to the Library of Congress, the old
German-American tradition of belsnickeling, a custom in which children dress up
in costumes for Christmas and visit their neighbors, is one possible origin of
modern-day trick-or-treating. As the tradition goes, during Christmas, kids
would visit their neighbors in disguise and have them guess who lurked behind
the masks. If they were wrong, they had to pony up treats. Sound familiar?
4- New Hampshire holds
the world record for lit jack-o'-lanterns.
Sorry, but all your
mad pumpkin-carving skills will
never match that of Keene, New Hampshire, which holds the record for most lit
jack-o-lanterns on display. During the city's annual Pumpkin Fest held on Oct.
19, 2013, a dazzling 30,581 jack-o'-lanterns were lit, breaking the world
record.
5- Halloween falls on
a full moon every 19 years.
Based on movies and
popular Halloween images, it's tempting to think that the year's spookiest
holiday always lands on a full moon. How else would werewolves make an
appearance? More important, a full moon is the best way to see a witch (and her
trusty black cat) flying through the night. However, according to a NASA news article, full moons on
Halloween are exceptionally rare, occurring only once every nineteen years or
so, making them, indeed, once in a blue moon.
6- Magician Harry
Houdini died on Halloween.
Known for his wondrous
illusions, Harry Houdini defied all reason in 1908 when he somehow escaped from
a water-filled milk can in which he was shackled and chained. To this day, the
stunt remains one of the most well-known tricks and immortalized the magician.
It seems fitting, then, that the escape artist ultimately exited this world on
the most supernatural days of the year. On Oct. 31, 1926, Houdini died, not of
a stunt gone wrong, but of a burst appendix.
7- The White House was
first decorated for Halloween in 1958.
Mamie Eisenhower
decorated the White House for a Halloween
for the first time. She decked out the State Dining Room in twinkle lights,
shocks of dried corn, jack-o'-lanterns and autumnal flower arrangements for a
lunch for wives of staff members. Things took a spooky turn outside the dining
room, though: Black cats, owls, witch heads and goblins hung from
chandeliers in the foyer.
8- Americans spend
more than $100 on Halloween.
And it's not going
down anytime soon. In 2022, the National Retail Federation estimated that
Americans would spend an average of $100 on costumes, candy, decorations and
greeting cards.
9- The most-Googled costume is a witch
Classic Halloween
costumes never go out of style. Here are the most popular children’s Halloween
costumes in 2022 (in order), according to Google:
Witch, Spiderman,
Dinosaur, "Stranger Things", Fairy, Pirate
10- Halloween was once
known as "Black Halloween".
Before costumes and
trick-or-treating, Halloween was a night for pranking. The pranks eventually
got out of control and in 1933, vandals caused millions of dollars of damage
across the U.S., leading many people to refer to it as “Black Halloween.”
11- Trick-or-treating
began in Canada (possibly).
The origins of
trick-or-treating are still up for debate. Although some believe
trick-or-treating dates back to medieval times, Henry Ansgar Kelly, a research
professor specializing in medieval and renaissance studies at UCLA, said it may
have started in Canada during the early 1900s as a way to deter pranksters from
wreaking havoc.
12- Michael Myers was
inspired by Captain Kirk.
Netflix's "The
Movies That Made Us" revealed the connection between "Halloween"
and "Star Trek." The Michael Myers mask in the movie was actually
reconstructed from an old Captain Kirk mask. Tommy Wallace, the film’s production
designer, shaved off the eyebrows and sideburns then dyed the hair brown to
give it its signature Michael Myers look.
13- Halloween isn't
Day of the Dead (and vice versa).
While the Day of the
Dead (Día de los Muertos) is often associated with Halloween, it shouldn't be.
The Mexican holiday dates back more than 3,000 years and is a time to honor
deceased loved ones. That said, it shouldn't be associated with costumes, candy
and other Halloween traditions.
14- Halloween
generates billions of dollars.
Around $10 billion, to
be exact. The most recent survey from the National Retail Federation predicted that
Halloween would generate $10.6 billion in 2022, up from 10.14 billion in 2021.
Costumes account for most of that, with kids' and adult costumes expected to
exceed $2.9 billion.
15- Stingy Jack
inspired jack-o'-lanterns.
"Stingy
Jack," a drunk and deplorable person, cheated death three times and, each
time, tricked the devil out of taking his soul. When Jack finally died, he
wasn’t allowed into heaven and the devil banned him from hell. Instead,
Jack was forced to wander Earth for all eternity using an ember-lit gourd to
light his way.
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