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11/02/2022

Orange is associated with Halloween because it's a harvest color (think of orange pumpkins and leaves) and black is associated with Halloween because of its links to death and darkness. But nowadays, purple is used almost as frequently in seasonal décor. So what gives?

According to Scientific American, the third shade was added to please little ones. "As a child-friendly color, it may have been used to soften the use of black and make the holiday and its themes palatable to a younger crowd."

11/02/2022

The largest Ouija board in the world was created on the roof of the Grand Midway Hotel, an appropriately haunted establishment in Windber, Pennsylvania. Measuring 1,302.54 square feet, the Ouija board has amped-up hauntings since it was installed, according to the project's co-creator and hotel resident, filmmaker Blair Murphy.

11/02/2022

If you're interested in adding a black cat to your family around Halloween, you might have a little trouble tracking one down. In 2017, Lynda Garibaldi, director of The Cats' Cradle shelter in Morganton, North Carolina, told HuffPost that their organization does "not adopt out black cats during the month of October … because of superstition and the concern that the wrong people (who might harm them) might adopt them."

11/02/2022

When the war was over and sugar rationing ended, children were able to go trick-or-treating once again. However, since the conflict had gone on for years, many young ones had never been out on Halloween and weren't familiar with the concept. According to Business Insider, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and the Peanuts comic strip "helped to re-popularize the tradition of dressing up in costumes and asking for candy from door-to-door."

11/02/2022

A lot of things changed during World War II, including the fact children didn't go trick-or-treating during the conflict. Because sugar was being rationed during the war, there wasn't any extra candy available for costumed children to collect. The tradition was paused until peacetimes returned.

11/02/2022

These white, orange, and yellow triangles of sugar are meant to resemble a kernel of corn. The candies were first created in 1898 by the Jelly Belly Candy Company while it was still known as California's Herman Goelitz Confectionary Company. Today, around 35 million pounds of it are produced each year, according to the National Confectioners Association. Despite that, they're often ranked one of the worst Halloween candies out there.

11/02/2022

We Americans love our candy. So much so, that during Halloween week alone, we consume around 300,000 tons of the stuff, which is the equivalent of two pounds of candy per person. According to the data whizzes at Vox, if you put all that candy in one big pile, it would be enough to fill six Titanics! And for some activities to try at your Halloween get-together, don't miss these 16 Halloween Party Games for a Spook-tacular Event.

11/02/2022

A large full moon would certainly create the perfect atmosphere for a spooky night. However, it turns out that a full moon rarely happens on Halloween. According to The Old Farmers Almanac, a "full moon on Halloween only occurs roughly once every 19 years. If the full moons are calculated using Greenwich Mean Time, that translates to approximately three to four times per century." Lucky for us, a full moon is expected for Halloween 2020.

11/02/2022

Bobbing for apples is a popular Halloween party game. But it turns out, the activity started as an 18th-century British courting ritual, according to the History Channel. In one set of rules, each apple was assigned to a potential suitor. The woman bobbing for apples would attempt to bite into the apple associated with her preferred suitor. If she bit it on the first try, they would be destined for love. If it took her two tries, their love would fizzle out. If it took her three, their relationship would be doomed.

11/02/2022

Halloween just wouldn't be the same without a few spooky carved out pumpkins. But years ago in Ireland, where the jack o'-lantern tradition began, people made the decorations using vegetables that were more readily available to them: large potatoes and turnips. When the tradition made its way to the U.S. through immigration, Americans used pumpkins instead

07/02/2022

07/02/2022