Halloween is the best season!! In a few hours you will have little ghosts and goblins go door to door saying "Trick or Treat"! Can wait to see all the costumes this year!! I will be watching Halloween movies and waiting for those trick or treaters!!! YEA!!! However before let’s look at 13 hair-raising facts about Today, October 31.
1. ONCE UPON A TIME- Believe it or not, the birthplace of Halloween is a candy factory! The holiday began in Ireland about 6000 years and it is believed to have originated around 4000 B.C.
2. SAMHAIN - Halloween was an ancient festival celebrated by the Celts called Samhain (pronounced sow-in). It was their celebration of the end of harvest season. Also, the Celtic New Years. The Celts believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead got a little blurry and the dead would come back to life and cause havoc among the living. One way to you scare the dead?
3. TRICK or TREAT? -This Halloween tradition began in the ancient Celtic era when they would put food and treats outside to placate spirits that roamed the streets in Samhain.
4. WEARING COSTUMES & MASKS - Celtics began the popular tradition of wearing costumes and masks on Halloween. They would wear them during the Samhain festival to ward off evil spirits that would pass through the veil.
5. JACK O' LANTERNS - Pumpkins and Halloween go together like candy and costumes. Right? While the English and Irish previously carved faces into turnips or potatoes and placed them on their doorsteps to ward off evil spirits. Americans were the first to carved pumpkins (which are native to North America). So carving pumpkins on Halloween is not only fun, it’s helpful too ;)
6. CORN ANYONE? - Candy corn has been a part of the Halloween “brand” since 1880, originally developed to resemble a corn kernel to appeal to America’s farmers and their families. Almost 9 Billion Kernels will be produced this year! That is enough to circle the moon 21 TIMES!! The most candy corn is sold on October 28th , two days before National Candy Corn Day!!
7. BLACK & ORANGE - They have always beeN traditional Halloween colors but why? Orange is associated with strength and endurance, along with brown and gold, stands for the harvest and autumn. Black is typically a symbol of darkness and death. These two colors act as a reminder that Halloween once was a festival that marked the boundaries between life and death.
8. ARE YOU AFRAID? - Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween. Who know?
9. NICKNAMES - Halloween has had various nicknames through the ages including: All Hallows’ Eve, Witches Night, Lamswool, Snap-Apple Night, Samhain and Summer’s End.
10. SHOW ME THE MONEY- Today, Americans spend around $6 billion on Halloween and $2 billion of that is on candy alone!!
11. ITSY BITSY SPIDER - Don’t be scared if you see a spider on Halloween. Tradition suggests that it is actually the spirit of a loved one watching over you.
12. TRUE MEANING OF A WITCH- The word for witch comes from the Old English Wicce which means “wise woman”
13. FULL MOON TONIGHT - It’s is actually very rare to for a full moon to occur on Halloween. Although, it’s has been predicted that one will occur on 10/31/2020. So that 5 years from now :0
