I bet you did not know all of these 10 Halloween facts… or maybe you did

Halloween is on Monday. That means we are two days away from having kids dressed up in all sorts of costumes ringing our doorbells. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about 10 Halloween facts. Some facts will be about Halloween itself and a couple will be about trick-or-treating.

1. Halloween is an expensive holiday – Americans spend just over $100 on average during a typical Halloween season. Between candy, costumes and decorations, I guess that makes sense.
2. “Song of Witches” came from William Shakespeare – You know the old saying witches recite while mixing potions in a caldron? Yeah, that originated from William Shakespeare’s MacBeth.
3. Finding a husband is a Halloween ritual – It is said that women in the 1700s would throw apple peels over their shoulders. Why? Because they hoped it would spell out their future husband’s initials.
4. Germans hide knives on Halloween night – Begone spirits… but don’t get hurt. This tradition was a way of preventing returning spirits from getting injured… Interesting.
5. Wearing a nun/priest costume is outlawed in Alabama – Alabama and weird laws… name a better duo than that.
6. Trick-or-Treating has been a thing for forever – This candy hunting excursion has existed since medieval times. However, it used to involve food and money and the exchange was “tricks” these kids would perform. Some of these tricks included singing or reciting poems.
7. Trick-or-Treating did not start innocently – The idea of begging neighbors for candy actually comes from the idea of souling, in which people would dress up in costumes to try to repel the evil spirits of phantoms.
8. Halloween used to involve turnips – That’s right. Before we carved pumpkins we carved turnips. Thank goodness that did not last long!
9. The heaviest jack-o-lantern was 2,350 pounds – This record-breaking carved pumpkin made its way on stage back in 2020. What’s more is it had a very distinguished tiger design.
10. Michael Myers’ mask is from Star Trek – Movie budgets can be expensive. That’s why the horror film “Halloween” bought a $2 Star Trek Captain Kirk mask… Thanks William Shatner for helping give us all nightmares.

Halloween is on October 31 just like it is every year, so let’s remember these facts while we go on a sugar high eating kids’ candy.