This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Halloween Fun Facts and Legends

Impress your coworkers at the water cooler on Halloween Monday with these holiday facts.

Halloween is here!

This secular holiday has long taken a bad rap when it comes to what we are celebrating.  With its pagan traditions and focus on scare and skull, it might make one wonder and how we got to the traditions we carry on today.

According to History.com, Halloween began as a Celtic New Year tradition, beginning November 1. The night before was a celebration of Samhain, where it was believed that the living and the spirits of the dead co-mingled while the spirits caused trouble and damage to valuable crops. November 1 was named All Saints Day or “All-Hallows” by Pope Boniface in 609 A.D, making October 31 All-Hallows Eve. The name later changed to Halloween.

Find out what's happening in Bonney Lake-Sumnerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Through many iterations of the holiday, Halloween came to America in New England first, due to the number of European immigrants.

Dressing in costume also dates back to European roots when winter was a frightening time, considering low food rations and the fear of darkness. It was thought that ghosts came back from the dead and would inhabit someone’s home if they left. To avoid being recognized when stepping out of their homes, people wore costumes to disguise themselves and to fool the ghosts into thinking they were one of them.

Find out what's happening in Bonney Lake-Sumnerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As America began to adopt the new customs and traditions, Halloween became a day for parties and public events to celebrate the harvest and remember dead loved ones. Since the late 1800s, Halloween has been considered a holiday focusing on community involvement and parties about ghosts and goblins and foods of the seasons – not much different than how many still celebrate today.

Religion and superstition were largely removed by the 1930s and Halloween transformed into a commercial holiday of parades, parties and entertainment. It began being celebrated in classrooms during the ‘50s.

Trick-or-treating may have dated back to the original All Souls Day of November 2 in England, where poor would beg for food and money. These items would be given to them in return for them saying prayers for the dead relatives of their provider.

Today, trick-or-treating is largely geared towards the younger set and got its name from handing out treats to ward off any tricks.

So what about carving pumpkins?  This centuries-old tradition starts in Ireland with the legend of Stingy Jack:

The story goes that Jack, a clever farmer, tricked the Devil into a tree and carved a cross on the trunk, which prevented the Devil from coming down. As a reward for freeing the Devil, Jack was allowed to live in peace for 10 years. After Jack died, God would not allow him into Heaven and neither the Devil allowed him into Hell. Jack was forced to roam the dark with only a coal to light his way. He put the coal into a carved turnip and has roamed the Earth ever since. Irish called him “Jack of the Lantern” and it was later shortened to “Jack O’Lantern.” The jack-o-lantern tradition came to America through Irish immigrants, along with the native tradition of carving pumpkins.

Let’s talk candy. Did you know?

  • The average American eats 24 pounds of candy every year.
  • Americans purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy for Halloween each year.
  • Of the $1.9 billion Halloween candy sales each year, $1.2 billion is chocolate.
  • Candy Corn is the top selling candy each Halloween followed by Snickers, Reese’s, Kit Kat and M&M’s.
  • October 28 is the top selling candy day of the year. (Facts courtesy of Huffington Post)
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Bonney Lake-Sumner