Impress Your Friends With These Halloween Facts

According to History.com, the first Halloween celebrations can be traced back to the ancient Celts. They lived in the area now occupied by Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, and celebrated a festival called Samhain on October 31st. It marked the day before their new year, the start of winter, and a time when the dead were believed to return to Earth.

During the Celtic festival of Samhain, it was customary for poor children to go door-to-door begging for food and money. Business Insider explains that in exchange for their generosity, children would offer to pray for the souls of their recently lost loved ones, hence how this activity got the name "souling."

Despite colonial New Englanders' awareness of Halloween, History.com explains that celebrations were very limited due to their strict Protestant beliefs. It wasn't until the second half of the 19th century, when a wave of Irish and other European immigrants arrived, that the holiday became widespread across America.

Irish Central details the myth of Stingy Jack, who was eternally doomed to roam the earth at night after making a deal with the devil. To guide his way, he lit a coal in a carved out turnip, inspiring Irish and Scottish people to do the same. When they later immigrated to America however, they realized the native pumpkins there had a more ideal surface for carving.

According to History.com, candy corns first appeared on the market around the 1880s, a time when about half of the American workforce was made up of farmers. Because of this, candies were often made into agricultural shapes, such as chicken feed, which we now think of as corn shaped. The change occurred after World War I, when corn became viewed as people food.

The reigning champion in jack-0-lantern displays is the City of Keene, which broke the Guinness World Record in 2013 by lighting 30,581 pumpkins. The city was the first to hold a record in this category and, committed to their winning status, has since broken their own record eight times.

While Valentine's Day is now widely accepted as the holiday for romance, there was once a time when Halloween was associated with courtship. The New York Times explains that in early 20th century, Halloween activities often played upon women's pursuit of love. One game involved cutting an apple skin off and tossing it over her shoulder, with the landed peel said to indicate the first initial of her future suitor.

According to History.com, trick or treating became popular in America in the 1930s, when it was acceptable to hand out everything from homemade cookies, to nuts, toys, and coins. Candy companies started marketing pre-packaged Halloween offerings in the 1950s, and 20 years later, it became the primary treat given out to children.

2017 is the record year for Halloween spending in the US, with $9.1 billion being spent on the holiday in total. According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, 95% of respondents planned to purchase candy that year amounting in a total spend of $2.7 billion just on these festive sweets alone.

The iconic costume from this 1978 film is nothing short of terrifying, but its backstory is actually pretty amusing. The New York Times revealed that the film's production designer Tommy Lee Wallace found a mask of William Shatner as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, and was completely inspired. The crew spray-painted it white to achieve the look we're all familiar with today.

In most places trick or treaters simply have to arrive in costume in order to get their Halloween candy, but that's not the case in Des Moines. The Des Moines Register explains that, as part of their Beggars' Night ritual, kids also have to do a trick or tell a joke of some sort to earn their share of candy.

Pumpkin carving is a leisurely activity for most, but competitive carver Stephen Clarke set the Guinness World Record in 2013 by completing his masterpiece in under 17 seconds. In order to qualify, the pumpkin had to have a nose, eyes, mouth, and ears.