Halloween Celebration Trivia

Do you know all the interesting Halloween celebration 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, the most familiar color associated with Halloween, or they can be tan, white, red, or green. The second most familiar color of Halloween is black. Black became the other color associated with Halloween because it is representative of darkness and death.

There are a lot of interesting little facts associated with pumpkins. Originally it was turnips that were used and sometimes beets before the Europeans discovered pumpkins being grown by the Natives and carved them instead. In Ireland they carved pumpkins and lit them inside to ward of evil spirits during the harvest celebration.

Pumpkins today come in a wide variety to suit almost every Halloween decoration need. A new favorite is the Baby Boo, which is a small, white pumpkin. Larger white varieties can also be grown or found sold by roadside vendors during autumn.

Another piece of Halloween celebration 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.

Halloween 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 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, ranks among the most popular Halloween treats.
• Costumes were originally worn to fool spirits so that they wouldn't try to possess a human body.
• The fear of black cats comes from the belief that cats were the familiars of witches and so it was best to avoid them and their magic.
• Early celebrants of the harvest festival went door-to-door asking for contributions for the banquet that was planned the night of the festival. This is believed to be where the idea of trick or treating first came from, also known as beggars night.
• Bobbing for apples, which became a popular party game, has its origins in paying homage to Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees and orchards.
• Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween.
• It was once believed that if an unmarried woman looked in the mirror at midnight on Halloween, she would see her future husband.
• Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables.

Visiting haunted houses or enjoying haunted hay rides has become a favorite activity during Halloween in the United States. For farmers it has become an additional revenue stream during their fall/winter season, and it is called agritainment.

Renting out an old house or barn and turning it into a "haunted house" during October has also become popular as a way to make extra cash for both the owner and the entertainment producer. Each year the actors and producers try to outdo each other in creating some of the scariest haunted places around the globe!

While the idea of visiting a haunted place for entertainment is a relatively new idea, the idea of spirits is not. Many religions share the belief of an afterlife. One interesting bit of information concerns the Irish and the new homes that they built in the United States after their voyage to avoid the potato famine. In the homes that they built they would place an object belonging to a person (most often a dead one), above their windows and outside doors, and then enclose it. It was believed that the spirit of the person who had owned the object would guard that entrance into the home.

Many home owners have been surprised to find old leather shoes, empty tin boxes, newspaper articles kept under glass and weighted with a rock, and more when they have done renovations! The home owners may decide to keep the objects where they are, and/or place their own time capsules or other items along with the old objects.