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Halloween Facts & Beliefs
“The Pioneer Woman” publication gives us quite a number of little known and long heard of Halloween facts and beliefs. Some of these I am going to share below adding my own comments as well. This season is always a fun time of celebration here in the USA.
They say that 46 percent of Americans plan to make or carve jack-o’-lanterns in 2023…up by 2 percent from 2022. That is 154 million Americans making jack-o’-lanterns! Wow, quite a number of us have fun doing this. I usually draw mine; not much into carving – LOL.
Transylvania is a real place in Romania. I believe most of us have known this fact for quite some time.
This is a new Halloween fact for me: there is a statue of Jason Voorhees from “Friday the 13th” at the bottom of a lake in Minnesota, there since 2013. It has become a popular underwater diver attraction.
Greenwich Village in New York has the largest Halloween parade with thousands of costumed attendees on Halloween. I have never been to a Halloween parade. That sounds like a ton of fun.
It is believed Ireland was the birthplace of Halloween. Even today they celebrate with street parties, lighting bonfires, and setting off fireworks aside from trick or treating and dressing in scary Halloween costumes. I used to hand out candy for my sis on Halloween and both of us would dress with a new fun mask every year to greet the trick or treaters. At present I still decorate my entry door and deck, and interior if time allows. How about you?
Halloween dates back to the 1800’s with the Celts who believed the dead returned to earth that night. That is why, it is believed, they lit bonfires and wore costumes “to ward off the ghosts”.
Here’s an interesting Halloween fact on how much we Ameicans spend, on the average, on Halloween every year. According to the National Retail Federation we spend just over $100 on this date. They conduct an annual survey on Halloween expenditures in the USA. I am surprised at, what seems to me, to be a pretty low figure. Evidently, not as many people are as involved in Halloween as I expected. Considering costumes, decorations, candy for treats, and parties, it appears to be a fairly low amount. How do you compare?
Irish immigrants brought the Halloween tradition with them to the US in the mid 1800’s. This is when there was a potato famine in Ireland. And, originally they carved turnips rather than pumpkins.
In the USA we started our trick or treat candy tradition in the 1950’s when the candy makers started promoting their goods through the retail trade.
New Hampshire holds the Guiness World Record for most lit jack-o’-lanterns – just under 30,600. This is in the City of Keene. They have held the title for at least eight years. I wonder what their population numbers? According to the U.S. Census, their total population was just under 23,000 in 2022. That is one huge number of lit pumpkins for that small town. Do you think they may have quite of number of people with Irish ancestry who live there?
Another note on our Halloween facts and beliefs, is on scarecrows, a Halloween agricultural symbol. Scarecrows were originated by Greek farmers to protect their crops, mainly from crows.
And finally, another new Halloween fact in my book is that pumpkin is actually considered a fruit, as it originates from a flower. This is the first mention of pumpkin as a fruit that I can ever recall.
For more Halloween lore see my recent post “All About Cats”.
Pet Food Recalls
I have seen mention of recent recalls. Be sure to check with our FDA.gov site for pet food recall info often to safeguard your pets.
Funny Animal Videos
Here’s a sort of spooky fact on bees and hornets from Big Geek Daddy – https://biggeekdad.com/2021/12/honey-bees-vs-murder-hornets/.
How about Sox the Motorcycle Dog – https://biggeekdad.com/2021/04/sox-motorcycle-dog/.
And last we have “I’ll be watching you” – https://biggeekdad.com/2022/08/ill-be-watching-you/.
For even more Halloween lore, see my recent post “All About Cats“.
Thanks
Happy to have you come by. Please do mention Pet Viewpoint to your friends, and remember to subscribe so you don’t miss out on some fun facts, helpful articles, and great USA pet products and services to benefit your pets. Have a great spooky Halloween season.
