17 Things You Never Knew About Trick-or-Treating
The tradition goes back 2,000 years.
The tradition goes back 2,000 years.
The tradition is over 2,000 years old — and started with food and wine.
The roots of trick-or-treating go back more than 2,000 years to the Ancient Celts. They celebrated a pagan festival called Samhain on November 1 that marked the end of the harvest season. The night before, they believed the dead returned as ghosts, so they left food and wine on their doorsteps to appease them. In the 8th century, the Christian church replaced Sahmain with All Saints Day, a.k.a., All Hallows. The night before — October 31 — came to be known as All Hallow's Eve, which then, of course, became Halloween.
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Trick-or-treaters used to sing and dance for sweets.
Back in the day, revelers couldn't just show up on a doorstep and demand candy; they had to entertain for it. In Middle Ages Britain, kids who were mostly poor went door-to-door dressed in disguise on All Hallow's Eve, singing, dancing, telling jokes and reciting poetry in exchange for food, wine and money. Irish and Scottish immigrants revived the tradition in 19th century America, turning it more or less into the trick-or-treating we know now.
Americans spend about $3.8 billion on Halloween candy every year.
Counted in this figure: the confections you give out to trick-or-treaters as well as the candy you keep for "decoration" at home and boss-placating at work..
Candy corn is very popular.
Is it food? Is it flavored wax? Is it mere decoration? Candy corn may be a mysterious substance, but since it was invented in 1898, it's become synonymous with Halloween. Manufacturers produce about 35 million pounds of the stuff a year, or about 9 billion pieces. Oh, and National Candy Corn Day occurs annually and aptly on October 30.
Reports of poisoned candy are greatly exaggerated.
Fact: No child has ever been randomly poisoned by a stranger on Halloween, at least in recorded history. There are, however, two cases of Halloween poisonings that may have led to the lore. In 1974, an 8-year-old boy in Houston, Texas died after eating a pixy stick laced with cyanide. His father — who had recently taken out a hefty life insurance policy on both his son and daughter (who lucky hadn't eaten her sweet) — was later convicted of his son's murder. And in 1970, a 5-year-old Detroit boy died after ingesting a large amount of heroin. The drug was found sprinkled on his candy haul, but it was later discovered that the family put it there to throw off investigators. In reality, the boy uncovered his uncle's heroin stash and mistakenly ate it, tragically dying from an overdose.
Haunted houses (kind of) started in ancient Egypt.
The Haunted House Association estimates that the U.S. is home to about 1,200 seasonal haunted attractions that pull in up to $500 million a year. Turns out, proprietors have ancient Egyptians to thank. To keep tomb raiders away from bodies and treasures, Egyptians often built moving walls, mazes and traps filled with snakes within their pyramids. That, combined with the ancient Greeks' and Romans' penchant for mazes and monsters, along with morality plays from early Christians looking to frighten people into converting, add up to you paying to get chased by a chainsaw-wielding bogey monster on a crisp Friday night.
Daylight Savings Time was extended, in part, to help trick-or-treaters.
Back in 1985 when Congress was debating extending Daylight Savings Time for energy conservation, the candy industry lobbied hard in its favor. They wanted the clocks to fall back after Halloween so trick-or-treaters could collect an hours' worth more of candy — and according to one report, even left candy pumpkins on the seat of every senator to curry favor (a claim the industry has disputed). They didn't succeed then. But thanks to a 2005 bill, starting in 2007, Daylight Savings Time was pushed from the last Sunday in October to the first Sunday in November — guaranteeing goblins got extra light.
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Jack-o-Lanterns were originally made from turnips.
In Irish folklore, a drunkard named Jack made a deal with the Devil that he would never go to hell. But as Jack found out when he died, that didn't mean he was getting into heaven either. So Jack roamed the earth with a coal in a turnip, becoming Jack of the Lantern. The Irish turned carved turnips, potatoes, and beets into lanterns to keep him away. In the U.S., pumpkins were plentiful — and bigger — becoming the go-to for jack-o-lanterns.
1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins are produced in the U.S. each year.
No matter how our appetites rage for the decorative and delicious gourd, it's unlikely we'll ever run out. Over 90,000 acres in the U.S. are devoted to the crop and the top 6 pumpkin-producing states — Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California — span a wide range of distance and climates.
Ghost costumes started as a disguise.
Princesses and superheroes may rule modern costumes, but ghosts never fail to make an appearance. How did the simple bedsheet costume become tradition? Back in the days of the Celtic festival Samhain, people dressed as ghosts when they went outside on October 31, hoping to either calm the spirits that were said to roam that day, or to blend in with them.
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Mischief Night is also known as… Cabbage Night?
Depending on the region you live in, you may know the night before Halloween as Mischief Night or Doorbell Night — when local kids prank the neighborhood with toilet paper rolls or ring doorbells and run. In New England, some people still call it Cabbage Night. Back in Scotland, teen girls used to "read" cabbage stems on Halloween to predict who they would marry. Over in New England, that morphed into teens throwing stinky cabbages at their neighbors' houses or leaving other rotting produce on their doorsteps. Awww!
Mamie Eisenhower brought Halloween to the White House.
Halloween first took on its family-friendly vibe in the 1950s, and Mamie Eisenhower was ready! According to the White House Historical Association, the First Lady was the first person to decorate 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the spooky holiday in 1958. Before hosting a luncheon with staffers' wives, she decked the State Dining Room with skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, dried corn, gourds and apples. She also hung black cats, owls, goblins and disembodied witch heads from chandeliers in the foyer. Boo-ld, Mamie!
A full moon on Halloween is very rare.
Save it for the movies. Since 1950, a full moon on Halloween has occurred exactly three times: in 1955, 1974 and 2001. But get ready: The next one is coming up in 2020!
At one point, Halloween was considered a romantic holiday.
Who needs cupid when you've got Jason? Since it was one of the few holidays where young men and women were free to socialize together, Halloween in old Ireland was considered a good day to find love. Young women also read each other's love fortunes on the day. In the U.S., bobbing for apples carried on the romantic tradition.
Black cat adoption used to be banned in October.
Once upon a time, animal shelters discouraged or banned the adoption of black cats in the month of October, fearing kitty would be sacrificed or otherwise harmed due to superstitions. Now, shelters often run promotions encouraging people to adopt black cats around Halloween.
Rover won't be left out.
Humans spend about $3.4 billion a year on Halloween costumes for themselves. If that seems crazy, consider the fact that they spend an additional $370 million dressing up their pets!
It's an honor to be called a witch.
The word "witch" may not have the best connotation now, but in reality, it stems from the Old English word wicce, which means "wise woman." The plural, as you may have guessed, is wiccan.
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