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31 Halloween Facts for Everyone Who Has Started Celebrating Already

By:: Brian C. Miller; Cracked Writers

September 19, 2023

31 Halloween Facts for Everyone Who Has Started Celebrating Already

Much like Christmas in December, the Halloween creep is real. Starting as early as August, big-box stores begin to put out their Halloween decorations, assorted giant bags of candy and cheap costumes based on whatever piece of I.P. is particularly hot (this year it’s Barbie). But if you still can’t wait a few more weeks, here’s a big list of facts about the origins of Halloween and all of its strange traditions. Jack-o-Lanterns? That used to just be a guy named Jack with a lantern. Trick-or-treating? Legitimately an offering to the neighborhood children in exchange for not playing pranks and digging up the award-winning squashes (or whatever) you've been growing in your garden.

Enjoy, early celebrators!

31 All Saints Day

All Saints' Day didn't prove as popular as All Hallows' Eve. The pagan practices prevailed, however changed, as people weren't into celebrating the good and light exclusively. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

30 Halloween in the US

At first, Halloween wasn't widely celebrated in the US. The Puritans in colonial New England didn't share the pagan traditions, and celebrating Halloween was more common in Maryland and the colonies of the south. Traditions of Native Americans were incorporated to form a distinctly American version of Halloween. Celebrations would include play parties where the public would share stories of the dead, dance and sing, and tell each other's fortunes to celebrate the harvest. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

29 The Irish and Halloween

The Irish popularized Halloween in the US. When Irish immigrants came to the US in the 19th century after fleeing the Great Famine, they brought with them their love for pagan traditions, as well as their unique Halloween practices. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

28 Just a Guy Named Jack

Originally, jack-o'-lantern was a person, not a pumpkin. It initially meant a man with a lantern, or a night watchman. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

27 Celtic New Year

Samhain also marked the beginning of the Celtic new year. Samhain Novembe Winzer Auntumnal Ocrobes Soltice equinox Occepien Seprember January August Lughnasadh Imbolg Lebenasy July Darch June Summer (Day Apek VeRnal Solzice Cquinox Belrainne The Celtic calendar was divided into two halves - the light and the dark. Samhain, also called the fire festival, signalled the beginning of the dark half of the year. It was seen as a time of death and rebirth, and marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the cold months. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

26 Old-School Trick or Treating

Trick-or-treating was done differently. During Samhain, sacrifices in the form of crops or animals were burned in bonfires (originally called bone fires), and food offerings were left outside to distract any evil spirits roaming about. Tricks and pranks were played but they were always blamed on fairies and mischievous spirits. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

25 Samhain to Halloween

Samhain became known as Halloween under Christianity. . inno OPERPOC à os O CARD ДРАСТО GEARN sadion DALTA NOC 165K ال raim PAIN name Any - - - ve - - - LA - - AM - muse - Don When Rome conquered the Celtic lands, many of the pagan traditions were reframed under Christianity. They made a new version of Samhain called All Saints' Day (November 1) that focused on honoring the saints, and October 31 became All Hallows' Eve. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

24 Candy Dishes

Dishing out candy evolved from the All Saints' Day traditions. People still made bonfires and donned costumes, but instead of leaving food offerings out for ghosts and spirits, they gave offerings to the poor as a goodwill gesture. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

23 Donating Bodies to Science

Donating your body to science? Prepare to be sold to, well, anyone. The brokerage companies handling body donations can't technically sell your stiff remains-but they do collect huge fees, for a massive profit. And pretty much anyone who pays these fees can get hold of you (or a part of you) with barely any hassle. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

22 Buddhist Mummies

Buddhists monks would mummify themselves while still alive. Some monks would become mummies (called sokushinbutsu) by following a starvation diet of pine needles and resins, to eliminate fat and dehydrate until they died. At least 24 people self-mummified this way before Japan banned the practice in 1879. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

21 Halloween Costumes

Costumes had a greater significance than today. The Celts wore costumes, usually in the form of animals or beasts, to trick and fool any spirits that might want to bring them harm. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

20 Halloween Mash-Up

Halloween is a mashup of different cultures and traditions. It originated with the Celtic people and was a festival called Samhain. The Celts believed that at the end of summer in the north, the barrier between our world and the world of spirits were at its thinnest. So they had a festival to honor the dead and keep evil spirits away. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

19 Strange Mysterious Lights

Jack-o'-lanterns then evolved to mean strange mysterious lights seen at night over swamps and marshes. These lights were created when gases from decomposing plants ignited as they became oxidized. But this was before people understood the science. They were also called hinkypunks, corpse candles, and will-o'-the-wisps. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

18 Stingy Jack

The Irish had their own unique story for these jack-o'-lantern lights, and it revolved around Stingy Jack. Stingy Jack invited the devil for a drink but couldn't pay for it, so he convinced the devil to turn into a coin so he could settle the bill. But Stingy Jack pocketed the devil-coin instead, and when he eventually freed the devil, he made him promise not to take his soul to hell when he died. When Stingy Jack died, he was rejected from heaven, and the devil kept his word and didn't take him to hell. Instead, the devil gave him — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

17 Other Jack-o-Lantern Vegetables

Carving jack-o'-lanterns into pumpkins was a tradition that came from the British Isles, and they used different types of vegetables. They used turnips, beets, and potatoes and stuffed them with coal, wood embers or candles. Kids would prank others by walking with their jack-o'-lanterns in the dark, making people think they saw Stingy Jack. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

16 Jack-o-Lantern Origins

In the US, the pumpkin jack-o'-lantern evolved from a prank. Kids in the US carved crude and evil faces into their pumpkins (used for their abundance) and scared people by making their lanterns look like disembodied heads. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

15 Poisoned Halloween Candy

Yes, Halloween candy is poisoned sometimes--by the parents. Most of the time, rumors of poisoned or tampered with candy are just that, rumors- and in the few documented cases of that actually happening, it was almost always the children's parents who were responsible. As it turns out, the candy was just fine until the kids brought it home. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

14 A Cursed Playstation 2 Disc

A PlayStation 2 disc was believed to be cursed - and it was (kind of). It was an internet myth for years: Kids who played some PS2 demo disc freaked out when disturbing images appeared on screen. The disc was finally identified in October 2020, containing for some unknown reason a trailer for the Japanese horror film Tetsuo: The Iron Man. PlayStation SELECT START ANALOG CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

13 Trick or Treating Monkeys

CRACKED.COM Begging hellmonkeys roam the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia. In Kampung Monyet, a slum in Jakarta, people dress trained monkeys in children's clothes and doll head masks (ostensibly to beg). The government has made efforts to stop the practice, because it's cruel to the animals and because just goddamn look at that. — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

12 Time Loops

For a guy in Britain, Groundhog Dayis a terrifying reality. The feeling of déjà vu usually goes away after a few seconds. But it came out in 2015 that an otherwise healthy young Brit had been in a constant state of déjà vu for years-living like he was stuck in a time loop, without even the advantage of knowing what was about to happen. 6 00 CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

11 Nice, Pure Halloween

There was a brief effort to purify Halloween. In the late 19th century, Halloween celebrations were focused away from ghosts and pranks and more toward communities and get-togethers. They tried to center it around the kids, and parents were told to refrain from anything frightening or grotesque during these celebrations, taking away much of the superstitions and religious influences. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

10 Married by Potatoes

Some of the older games and traditions got lost over time. For instance, an old Halloween tradition centered around women finding a companion, or hoping that they would. In Ireland, some women would put a ring in some mashed potatoes, hoping that her future husband would be the one to find it. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

9 Bobbing for Apples

Bobbing for apples was part matchmaking, part fortune telling. Young women would mark their apples in secret before dumping them in a water barrel. The men would then try to catch the apples with their mouths, resulting in future matchup predictions. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

8 Halloween Bread

The Irish have a traditional Halloween bread. Called barmbrack (speckled loaf), the bread was originally baked to play a game of fortune. It would contain a ring, a piece of cloth, and a small stick. Whoever got the ring would marry, whoever got the cloth would become a nun, and the stick meant you'll never get married. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

7 How To Prevent Zombies

Face-down burials prevented zombie infestations. Rich folks in the Middle Ages were sometimes buried face- down, as an act of humility to God-but in times of plague, face-down burials spiked, even among the poor. In the medieval mind, plague and the undead were related (and apparently revenants were too lazy to turn themselves around). CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

6 Witch Cakes Are Gross

CRACKED.COM Piss cakes were used to find witches. A witch cake was prepared with rye flour and the urine of a curse victim, then fed to a dog, which would somehow point at the culprit. It's unclear how long the cakes were a thing, but they were used in relation to the Salem Witch Trials. — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

5 The Origins of Trick-or-Treating

CRACKED.COM Trick-or-freating was created to stop children from wreaking havoc. In the early 20th century, Halloween used to be much more destructive than today, with young pranksters wrecking their neighborhoods. Activities such as treat- or-treating were started in the 1930s to keep the evil imps under control. — Source: 14 Creepy Random Facts to Celebrate Halloween Properly Spooked

4 Witches and Halloween

Witches and Halloween Members of the pagan Wicca were once highly respected, and were seen as wise people who honored and celebrated natural forces instead of a single deity. But the Christian religion with its male hierarchy saw them as powerful, dangerous feminists with dark powers, and connected them with all things evil, especially on Halloween. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

3 Black Cats and Folklore

Black cats have always been part of folklore and superstition. In Scottish folklore, there's a fairy named Cat Sith who walked around as a giant black cat, stealing the souls of the dead. In Medieval times, they were associated with the devil, and even blamed for the Black Death. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

2 Poor Owls!

Owls had much of the same societal fate as witches. The ancient Greeks linked owls to the goddess Athena and saw them as symbols of wisdom, but during the Middle Ages they were given an evil reputation and were associated with both death and devil worship. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

1 Halloween Spiders

Seeing a spider on Halloween is a good thing. Many believe that a spider on Halloween is actually a loved one watching over you. CRACKED.COM — Source: 22 Historical Halloween Facts To Hex Your Brain

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