Halloween Trivia
By Joy J. Fine
Do you know all the interesting Halloween trivia that comes along with this holiday? Often the trivia that surrounds it explains so much of what people believe about the holiday or where the origins for some of the holiday traditions come from. Everyone knows how much fun it is to carve those big orange pumpkins, but how many people know the other colors pumpkins come in? They can be either the orange we all are familiar with or they can be grown tan, white, red or green. Orange became the ones most used because the color orange is linked directly to the colors of the autumn when the harvest takes place. Black became the other color associated with Halloween because it is the color one thinks of as representative of the dark, of night and death.
There are a lot of interesting little facts associated with pumpkins. Originally it was turnips that were used and sometimes even beets before the Europeans discovered pumpkins being grown by the Natives and carved them instead. In Ireland the reason they carved pumpkins was so they could ward of evil spirits during the original harvest holiday. Another piece of Halloween trivia concerns the growing of pumpkins. It has become a popular pastime as farmers all over North America try to grow the biggest one for their local fairs. Prizes can be quite lucrative having been known to exceed twenty thousand dollars.
Other sources of Halloween trivia will inform you that the holiday was originally celebrated by the Celts at the end of October as a harvest holiday. It came to the United States and Canada by those who moved from Europe to settle in North America. They brought many of their traditions with them and one was the celebration of a successful harvest. In Mexico there is a similar holiday but it is called the Day of the Dead.
Did you know that Halloween is the holiday that Americans spend the most on after Christmas? The candy alone costs Americans nearly two billion dollars a year. Add another half a billion dollars for decorations, costumes, party costs and you have another interesting Halloween trivia fact. Of the candy that is bought chocolate bars are among the most popular treat given. The chocolate bar Snickers is the number one Halloween treat.
The original reason for the costumes on the night of the harvest festival was to ensure that people could avoid looking like humans and so protect themselves from the spirits and witches that would be out that night. The fear of black cats comes from the belief that those cats were the familiars of witches and so it was best to avoid them and their magic. Those early celebrants of the harvest festival went door to door asking for contributions for the banquet that was planned for the night of the festival. This is believed to be where the idea of trick or treating first came from. Bobbing for apples, which became a popular party game, has its origins in paying homage to Pomona the goddess of fruit trees and orchards.
One last interesting piece of Halloween trivia; Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween.
