Halloween Fun Facts

- Halloween, referred to as All Hallows Eve, was originally a pagan holiday in which they honored the dead. It was celebrated on October 31 since this was the last day of the Celtic calendar. The celebration dates back some 2,000 years.

- The ancient Celts thought that spirits and ghosts wondered the streets on all Hallows Eve so they began wearing masks and costumes in order to not be recognized as human.

- The jack-o-lantern tradition comes from an old Irish folk tale about a man named Stingy Jack. It was said that he was unable to get into heaven and was turned away from the devil because of his tricky ways. So he set off to wander the world looking for a resting place. For light, Stingy Jack used a burning coal ember in a hollowed out turnip. When the Irish immigrated to the U.S. during the Great Potato Famine of 1845-1850, they found that turnips were not as readily available like they were in the homeland. So they started carving pumpkins as a replacement for their tradition.

- On Halloween, Irish peasants would beg the rich for food. For those that refused, they would play a practical joke. So, in an effort to avoid being tricked, the rich would hand out cookies, candy, and fruit – a practice that morphed into trick-or-treating today.

- Of all the candy sold annually, one quarter of it is sold during Halloween time (September – November 10) making it the sweetest holiday of the year.
- Tootsie Rolls were the first wrapped penny candy in America
- The number one candy of choice for Halloween is Snickers
- There are an estimated 106 million potential treat-or-treat stops (i.e., housing units occupied year-round, per the U.S. Census)

- Halloween is the second most commercially successful holiday, beat out only by Christmas
- The U.S. consumer spends upwards of $1.5 billion on Halloween costumes annually and more than $2.5 billion on other Halloween paraphernalia, such as decorations, crafts, etc. More than $100,000 of that is said to be spent online
- Candy sales in the U.S. for Halloween average $2 billion annually
- Halloween is the third biggest party day of the year behind New Year’s and Super Bowl Sunday, respectively
- 86% of Americans decorate their homes at Halloween
- Halloween is the 8th largest card sending holiday. The first Halloween greeting is dated back to early 1900 and today consumers spend around $50 million dollars on Halloween cards each year.
- Of the pumpkins marketed domestically, 99% of them are used as Jack-o-lanterns at Halloween
- Approximately 82% of children and 67% of adults take part in Halloween festivities every year

- The official Orange and Black colors of Halloween came from orange being associated with fall harvest and black symbolizing darkness and death.
- There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with “orange”

- In the movie “Halloween” the mask worn by Michael Meyers is actually the mask of William Shatner painted white
- Magician, Harry Houdini died on Halloween, 1926 in Detroit, MI.

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