13 Best Halloween History Facts for Spooky Fans
It's officially spooky season! You might be planning your costume and picking out a pumpkin to carve, but do you know the history of the scariest night of the year? Find out some spinechilling facts here!
Are you curious about how Halloween became the spooky celebration we love today? These 13 ghoulish facts will take you on a journey from ancient Roman festivals to modern-day trick-or-treating! Find out why we carve pumpkins, wear superhero costumes, and tell ghost stories every October 31. Get ready to be amazed as you read some totally spine-chilling facts!
1. Candy corn became a Halloween treat in the 1950s
Candy corn was invented in the 1880s and became a Halloween treat in the 1950s when sweet companies realised the colours reminded them of the autumn. This made it the perfect choice for Halloween. It's estimated that 12 million packets of this sweet were sold around Halloween in 2022.
2. Romans had their own Halloween
The Romans celebrated Feralia, a day to honour the dead, and Pomona, the goddess of fruit (sounds like a very healthy festival). When the Romans met the Celts, the festivals blended their celebrations together in spooky mash-up. Read more about this later!
3. Dressing up at Halloween was meant to scare ghosts!
Originally, Halloween costumes were meant to off ward to ghosts. But around a century ago, people began creating costumes for fun! Homemade masks and ghost sheets turned into superheroes and princesses, and now we have everything from pirates to people in jeans and a coat (although we think they haven't made much of an effort).
4. It started thousands of years ago
The Celts, who used to live in Britain, Ireland and Northern France, had a festival called Samhain (pronounced sah-win) that celebrated the end of the harvest and the beginning of the winter months.
5. Samhain was the old new year
Back when people's lived revolved around the harvest, November 1st was the first day of the new year - summer was over and it was time to party before settling in for a long winter. Would be nice to have two weeks off school for Halloween!
6. It was the spookiest time of the year
People believed that the night of Halloween was when the boundaries between the human world and the spirit world were thinnest - so, if you were going to see a ghost, it would most likely be on October 31st. Keep an eye out this Halloween!
7. People wore masks at Halloween for pranking
Back in medieval times, people wore masks on Halloween to hide their identity during pranks. If you got caught egging someone’s door, no one could recognise you under that creepy mask! It was all part of the tradition, long before superhero costums took over Halloween!
8. Lots of Halloween traditions came from the UK and Ireland
That's right, Halloween came from this part of the world! Some of the most famous traditions, including pumpkins and trick-or-treating, originated in the British Isles. And some of them have changed a lot over the years...
9. Pumpkins used to be turnips
The tradition of carving a pumpkin began in Scotland and Ireland with turnips. Turnips were a very common vegetable in Scotland and Ireland, so they were used to make spooky lanterns with scary faces. The scarier the face, the more likely it was to scare away evil spirits. But turnips are very hard to carve - thank goodness we usepumpkins now!
10. Trick or treating is also called "guising"
Trick-or-treating started back in the 16th century in the UK and Ireland, when kids would go house to house in costumes and put on a little performance for money or treats. The costumes were supposed to frighten evil spirits away - the scarier the better!
11. Halloween in Mexico is a little bit different
Mexico has its own version of Halloween called the Day of the Dead. Unlike our Halloween though it is usually very bright and cheerful, and families will have picnics near the graves of their dead loved ones to celebrate their lives. Sugar skulls, called calaveras, are given as sweet treats!
12. Halloween is also a romantic night
Strangely enough there are a lot of romantic superstitions around Halloween. One old Scottish custom was for women to name hazelnuts after the men they wanted to marry, then throw the nuts into the fire. If the nut roasted rather than exploded, it represented her future husband. Another tradition was for women to peel apples in one go, and whatever shape the peel landed in would be the initials of her future husband. A third legend stated that, if a woman looked into the mirror at midnight, her future husband would appear behind her. Creepy!
13. It's an international event
Halloween might have started in the UK and Ireland, but mass immigration to the USA meant that it became a huge event there, too. Now many other countries celebrate the spooky season thanks to US culture being popular worldwide. Japan, South Korea, China, Australia, New Zealand and lots of European countries enjoy costumes, parties and lots of sweet treats on October 31st!
