Halloween’s Top Ten Interesting Facts!

Halloween’s Top Ten Interesting Facts!

Every year, the public don their spookiest costumes and head out to parties, bars and take to the streets to Trick or Treat.

While the celebration may look a little different this year, there are still a wide range of traditions that can be upheld.

Here are the Top Twelve interesting facts about Halloween that you may not know.

1) Origins in Samhain

Halloween is actually based on an old Celtic festival named Samhain. This festival was a typical celebration of the Celtic New Year.

The celebrations are thought to occur when the veil between the world of the living and the dead are at their thinnest and it was the hope of the Celts that they would be visited by their ancestors on that evening.

2) Longevity

The tradition of Halloween in all its forms dates back over 2,000 years

3) Blazing Bonfires

Celebrations of the Samhain tradition involved druids building massive bonfires. These bonfires, original bone-fires, were burned for the community to throw in carcass bones after feasting. This was done as an offering for a bountiful harvest in the coming year.

4) All Hallows’ Eve

The festival was eventually adopted by Christians who converted the celebration into All Hallow’s Eve, which later became All Saint’s Day.

5) The Cold Awaits

The original Celtic term, Samhain, actually means “summer’s end”. It was the time when the beginning of the cold winter evenings occurred.

6) Costumes

Throughout the Samhain celebrations, revellers dressed up in animal hides and skin clothing. This was the start of the modern-day costume wearing.

7) Playing Games

Many of the modern Halloween games that are played during parties were also played during these festivities including “bobbing for apples”.

8) Why do we carve pumpkins?

Originally Turnips were carved rather than pumpkins at these celebrations. The reason that society moved to carving pumpkins was during the movement of Irish immigrants to America.

As turnips were particularly expensive in the states, the immigrant took to carving the cheaper alternative, the pumpkin.

9) ‘Souling’

In the early days of the Halloween tradition, people would go from door to door asking for small offerings of bread in exchange for a prayer. This was called Souling and began the current tradition of Trick or Treating.

10) Samhainophobia

The fear of Halloween is called “Samhainophobia” and is suffered by thousands of people across the globe.

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