It’s officially Halloween!

I thought I’d share a few fun Halloween facts I found. Literally a random list of facts:

1-Halloween was originally a Celtic holiday celebrated on October 31st. It
was called The Festival of Samhain. Later it was called All Hallows Eve
and over the years it was shortened to Halloween!

2-Halloween was brought to North America by immigrants from Europe who
celebrated the harvest around bonfires, telling ghost stories, singing,
dancing, and telling fortunes!

3-Orange and black are the Halloween colors because orange is associated
with the fall harvest and black is associated with darkness and death!

4-Halloween is the 2nd largest commercially sucessful holiday, with Christmas
being the first. People spend over 2.5 BILLION dollars on costumes,
decorations, and parties. They spend another 2 BILLION on candy!

5-Trick-or-treating originated with the Irish. Irish townsfolk would visit their
neighbors and ask for contributions of food for a feast in town. It became
as we know it now in America in the early 1900′s.

6-Dressing up in costumes came the ancient celts. They thought spirits and
ghosts roamed the countryside on Halloween night, so they wore masks
and costumes to avoid being reconized as human!

7-Jack-o-lanterns originated in Ireland. They put candles in hollowed-out
turnips to keep away spirits and ghosts. Pumpkins were later brought back
from the new world and quickly became more popular. The name “Jack”
came from the story of a miser named Jack who died and couldn’t get into
heaven because he had been a miser all his life. He had tricked the devil
out of soul and couldn’t get into hell either. The devil told Jack he was
doomed to wander tthrough darkness the rest of eternity and threw a
glowing coal to light his way. Jack placed the coal in a turnip and used it
as a lantern….and the Jack-o-lantern was born.

8-SAMHAINOPHOBIA is an intense fear of Halloween!

1.  An October 2008 CNN Poll showed:

•    A majority of us, 48 percent, believe in ghosts.
•    Twenty-two percent of Americans say they’ve seen or felt a ghost.
•    Women are more likely to say they believe in ghosts than are men.
•    More than half of younger Americans aged 18 to 45 believe in ghosts.
•    A whopping 78 percent of us believe in life after death.

2.  The next full moon on Halloween night will be October 31, 2020

3.  Many historic events have happened on Halloween Day – among them:

834:  The first Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is celebrated
1876: A cyclone hits Bengal, killing about 200,000
1918: Spanish flu kills 21,00 people in the U.S. in one week
1922: Mussolini becomes the Premier of Italy
1926: Harry Houdini dies in Detroit
1941: Mount Rushmore is completed
1952:The first thermonuclear bomb was detonated in The Marshall Islands
1968: President Johnson issued a “cease all bombing” order in North Vietnam

4.  Adults love Halloween, too. It is estimated that one-third of all adults don costumes and join-in the “spookiest- night” festivities. The 2005 season had almost 4 million of us wearing a “Witch” costume. That’s 16.4% of all adult Halloweeners. And…we like “Vampires” too – 1.4 million wore the vampire cape and fangs in 2005.  Costumes for famous people and celebrities tied with monsters at about 7.5 million each. The child’s “Princess” costume was most popular in 2005, almost tripling the sales of 2004’s most popular costume, Spiderman.

5.  One of the “most filmed” movie characters (if not the most filmed) is Dracula.

6.  What are the “most thrilling” movies of all time? The American Film Institute polled 1,500 members of the film industry. Their Top 10 are: (1) Psycho, (2) Jaws, (3) The Exorcist, (4) North by Northwest, (5) The Silence of the Lambs, (6) Alien, (7) The Birds, (8) The French Connection, (9) Rosemary’s Baby and (10) Raiders of the Lost Ark.

7.  Moviegoers consistently vote for Silence of the Lambs, Psycho and The Exorcist as the scariest movies of all time. There’s no clear ranking within these three – we just think they are scary.

8.  The Salem Witch trials of 1692 are known for burning so-called witches at the stake. Actually, not one witch died by burning; most were put to death by hanging. One unfortunate witch was “pressed” to death and several died in prison of natural causes.

9. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Utah, in 2004, had the highest proportion of its total population trick-or-treating in the 5-to-13 year old age group with Alaska following closely behind.

10. A new Guinness world record was set October 1, 2005 for the “Biggest Pumpkin.” Larry Checkon of North Cambria, Pennsylvania is the grower of this 1,469 lb. giant. Checkon’s pumpkin outweighed the 2004 winner by about 23 lbs.

11. The gold standard among pumpkin growers is producing a pumpkin weighing at least 1,100 lbs., which is automatic entry into The 1,100 Club. Numerous professionals hint that you can grow a really, really big pumpkin by planting the Atlantic Giant pumpkin seed.

12. The first “Jack-O-Lanterns” were not pumpkins - they were hollowed-out turnips and originated in Ireland.

13.  We love Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups - so says ExtremeChocolate.com’s survey of our “favorite Halloween candy.”  The clear winner is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups with 20.8 percent of the vote; second is Candy Corn at 15.8 percent and third is Snickers with 15.3 percent of the vote. One thousand people voted, and results were posted on September 13, 2006.

14. According to ExtremeChocolate.com: “Chocolate is much better than hard candy for you and your child’s teeth. Chocolate contains tannins, which slow down the formation of plaque on the teeth….Further, chocolate usually stays in the mouth a shorter time than hard candy, which is another dental benefit.”

15. “Trick or Treat for UNICEF” started 1950 in Philadelphia. A group of young trick-or-treaters, accompanied by their pastor, collected $17 for children-in-need overseas. The money was sent to UNICEF and an American tradition was born. According to UNICEF: Just $1 protects a child from polio, $1 immunizes one child against measles, $2 provides 66 children with Vitamin A capsules for one year, $2.46 buys school supplies for a child for a full year, and $9 buys a pack of 200 water purification tablets.