2 Witches Blog

Happy Mischief Night one and all.  In celebration of Halloween and all things spooky here is a fun collection of Halloween Facts, Trivia and Superstitions so you can amaze your friends with your knowledge of this most frightful holiday.

13 Halloween Related Facts and Trivia:

1. Samhainophobia is an intense fear of Halloween (Related fears: cats (ailurophobia), witches (wiccaphobia), ghosts (phasmophobia), spiders (arachnophobia), the dark (nyctophobia), and cemeteries (coimetrophobia).
2. Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Holloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.
3. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival (Samhain) to honor deceased relatives and friends. For the friendly spirits places were set at the dinner table, treats were placed on doorsteps and along the side of the road and candles were lit to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.
4. Ancient Celtics celebrated with huge sacred bonfires, wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and told fortunes. When the celebration was over, the hearth fires were re-lit from the sacred bonfire for protection during the coming winter. 
5. By A.D. 43, the Romans had conquered most of the Celtic lands and over the course of the next few centuries, two Roman festivals combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain - Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. and the day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.
6. By the 800s, Christianity had spread into Celtic lands and in 7th century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs (it was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. (This is believed to have been an attempt to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a church-sanctioned holiday.) 
7. By A.D. 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead, which was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.
8. Halloween was brought to North America by immigrants from Europe who would celebrate the harvest around a bonfire, share ghost stories, sing, dance and tell fortunes.
9. Jack o’lanterns originated in Ireland where people placed candles in hollowed-out turnips to keep away spirits and ghosts on the Samhain (Hallowmas) holiday.
10. Trick or treating originated in Ireland. On Halloween night wealthy landowners gave food to the poor hoping that visiting ghosts of the night would see their good deeds and spare them from trouble.
11. The Halloween game of Bobbing for Apples is thought to have originated from the roman harvest festival that honors Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees.
12. The traditional Halloween colours of orange and black represent the colours of fall harvest (orange) and the colour of death and darkness (black). 
13. Next to Christmas, Halloween is the most celebrated and commercially successful holiday.

9 Halloween Superstitions:

• If you see a spider on Halloween, it is the spirit of a loved on watching over you.
• If you stare into a mirror at midnight on Halloween, you will see the person you will marry.
• A person born on Halloween can both see and talk to spirits.
• Put your clothes on inside out and walk backwards on Halloween night to meet a witch.
• Walk around your home three times backwards (counterclockwise) before sunset on Halloween to ward off evil spirits.
• Light a new orange colored candle at midnight on Halloween and let it burn until sunrise, and you will be the recipient of good luck.
• Gazing into a flame of a candle on Halloween night you will be able to see the future.
• If a candle suddenly goes out by itself on Halloween, a ghost has come to call.
• The dumb supper, not talking while having supper encourages the spirits to come to the table.

Candy and Pumpkin Trivia:
 - Pumpkins are orange and also blue, green, and white.
 - The largest pumpkin grown on record weighed in at 1,385 pounds.
 - Chocolate bars are the number one favorite candy of trick-or-treaters.
 - The Tootsie Roll was the first “penny candy” to be sold with a wrapper.
 - One cup of raisins contains more sugar than one cup of candy.
 - In the US alone the sales of Halloween candy averages $1 billion dollars a year.

Happy Halloween, Lady Rose

P.S.  Oct. 30th also happens to be my birthday!  hehehe