Are you all set for your Halloween party? You may not know this but Halloween is the second highest grossing holiday in the world next to Christmas! For kids, it means candies and post-Halloween toothache. For adults, it means spooky parties and over-the-top grotesque costumes. So before you prepare your freaky ensemble, here are 10 fun facts about Halloween that may come in handy during your Halloween celebration:
- Famous magician Harry Houdini died on Halloween (October 31, 1926) due to appendicitis.
- Samhainophobia is the intense and persistent fear of Halloween.
- The first Jack O’Lanterns were made from turnips not pumpkins.
- Halloween is generally believed to have originated in Ireland more than 2,000 years ago.
- In Scotland, girls believe that if they hung wet sheets in front of a fire on Halloween they will see the image of their future husband.
- The word Halloween is short for “Hallows’ Eve” or “Hallows’ Evening,” (October 31) which is the evening before “All Hallows Day” which is celebrated on November 1 (hallow means sanctified or holy day).
- New York City is known to host The Village Halloween parade which is the largest and most attended Halloween parade in the US, involving 50,000 participants and over 2 million spectators.
- In Hong Kong, Halloween celebrations are known as “Festival of the Dragons” (Yue Lan) wherein food and gifts are offered to angry ghosts who might be seeking for revenge.
- Americans purchase around 600 million pounds of candy each year in celebration of Halloween.
- There are two self-proclaimed Halloween capitals in the world: Salem, Massachusetts and Anoka, Minnesota.
With that, we leave you with a two-sentence chilling story:
I begin tucking him into bed and he tells me, “Daddy check for monsters under my bed.” I look underneath for his amusement and see him, another him, under the bed, staring back at me quivering and whispering, “Daddy there’s somebody on my bed.”
For more spine-tingling stories, click here. Happy Halloween!
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