There are very few weekends that are more fun than Halloweekend on college campuses. It’s a holiday whose meaning has changed drastically since our time trick-or-treating for Milky Ways and Tootsie Rolls, but it remains just as fun. Enjoy the following fun facts that will get into the Halloween mood.
1. America spends 2 billion dollars on Halloween candy per year.
2. People in Ireland and Scotland originally used beets or turnips as lanterns.
3. Apple bobbing was originally a game in Colonial America used for fortune-telling. The first person to successfully bob the apple was believed to be the first to marry.
4. Many animal shelters refuse to allow people to adopt black cats around Halloween in an attempt of protecting them from ritual sacrifices.
5. Bloody Mary, the children’s game, came from a ritual in which one would look into a mirror at midnight on Halloween under candlelight and see their future husband’s face.
6. The first individually wrapped and sold Penny Candy was a Tootsie Roll.
7. Black cats, spiders, and bats are prominent Halloween symbols because they were thought to protect a witch’s powers. Owls hoots were also believed to indicate that someone had died.
8. Trick-or-treating is thought to originate from “souling” in the medieval ages when children and poor adults went from door-to-door begging for food (soul-cakes) or money in exchange for prayers.
9. There is a $1,000 fine for selling, using, or possessing silly string on Halloween.
10. It is illegal to dress up as a priest, nun, or rabbi in Alabama. I don’t know how well Father Leahy would take that either…
Happy Halloween!
Sources: http://www.tampabay.com/resources/images/blogs-photo/rendered/2015/10/01… https://plantscientist.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/turnipjackolantern.jpg https://munchies-images.vice.com/wp_upload/apple-bobbing-halloween-ritua… https://i.pinimg.com/736x/35/10/03/3510033106b00d3bf4c270c0604236cb–bla… https://i.pinimg.com/736x/95/97/9f/95979fa4455d741628f0e2a9f9ccbeb7–blo… http://www.darkshadowghosttours.com/images/halloweenfacts3/tootsieRolls…. https://az616578.vo.msecnd.net/files/2016/10/29/636133753462762089139007… http://visitlawrencecounty.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/TRICK-OR-TREAT… https://images.halloweencostumes.com/products/4719/1-1/adult-priest-cost…