Happy Halloween from the team at Force 5!
Here are a few fun facts about Halloween…
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- In the United States, the first citywide celebration of Halloween was in Anoka, Minnesota in 1921.
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- Jack o’ Lanterns originated in Ireland where people placed candles in hollowed-out turnips to keep away spirits and ghosts on the Samhain holiday.
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- According to Irish legend, Jack O’ Lanterns are named after a stingy man named Jack who, because he tricked the devil several times, was forbidden entrance into both heaven and hell.
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- 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.
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- Tootsie Rolls were the first wrapped penny candy in America.
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- The ancient Celts thought that spirits and ghosts roamed the countryside on Halloween night. They began wearing masks and costumes to avoid being recognized as human.
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- Halloween candy sales average about 2 billion dollars annually in the United States.
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- The fear of Halloween is known as Samhainopobia.
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- Halloween is the 2nd most commercially successful holiday, with Christmas being the first.
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- The word “witch” comes from the Old English wicce, meaning “wise woman.”
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- Candy Corn was invented by George Renninger, a candy maker at the Wunderle Candy Company of Philadelphia in the 1880s. Candy Corn was originally called “butter cream candies” and “chicken feed” because corn was commonly used as food for livestock. After World War II, advertisers began marketing it as a special Halloween treat due to its colors that match those of the fall harvest.
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- Scottish girls believed they could see images of their future husband if they hung wet sheets in front of the fire on Halloween.
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- Girls who place the apple they bobbed for under their pillows are said to dream of their future love.
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- Agatha Christie’s mystery novel “>Halloween Party is about a girl who is drowned in an apple-bobbing tub.
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- 90% of parents admit to sneaking goodies from their kids’ Halloween trick-or-treat bags.
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- Words that www.rhymezone.com say almost rhyme with “orange”: aurand, borage, corinth, cottage, florance, florence, forage, foreign, homage, knowledge, lauren, laurence, lawrence, loren, lorincz, lozenge, morons, mortgage, orand, orang, oren, orens, porridge, portage, sausage, shortage, sporran, storage, syringe, torrance, torrence, torrent, torrents, warrant, warren, zoran
