Candy, costumes and creepy movies – what’s not to love about Halloween? With the scariest day of the year only a week away, it’s time to check your Halloween trivia. How many of these ten fun facts about Halloween did you already know?
10) The most popular loot for trick-or-treaters is chocolate. Snickers tops the list of favourite Halloween snacks!
9) Halloween is one of the oldest celebrations. It dates back some 2,000 years to an ancient Celtic festival of the dead called Samhain (pronounced Sow-en). This festival was celebrated for two days, starting on November 1.
8) In the Celtic times, Jack-O-Lanterns were carved out of large turnips rather than pumpkins.
7) The Halloween colours have a special meaning – black symbolizes darkness and orange symbolizes the fall harvest.
6) October is Black Cat Month. Due to witch folklore, these cute felines have a bad rap. In England, white cats (instead of black) are considered to be bad luck!
5) Halloween is the second biggest commercial holiday after Christmas. Just think of the amount of money people spend on costumes, decorations and candy!
4) Pumpkins are most often orange, but they can also be blue, red, green, white and grey.
3) A fear of Halloween is called “Samhainophobia”.
2) Looking for a full moon? It is very rare for one to occur on October 31. The last one to happen on Halloween was in 1974. However, another one is predicted to occur in 2020.
1) Some say that if you see a spider on Halloween, it is a sign the spirit of a loved one is watching over you.