The Irish have a story about the origin of jack-o-lanterns. A man named Jack could not enter Heaven because he was a miser, and he was unable to enter Hell because he had played practical jokes on the Devil. Therefore, he was left to walk the earth until Judgment Day with his lantern, which was a hot coal placed in a hollowed-out turnip. When the Irish came to America, they found pumpkins easier to carve and much more plentiful, which is how pumpkins came into the tradition.

 

The use of witches, ghosts, and cats in Halloween celebrations originates with the Druids, an order of priests in ancient Gaul and Britain who believed that ghosts, spirits, fairies, witches and elves came out on Halloween to harm people. They thought cats had once been human beings, but were changed as punishment for their evil deeds.

 

The Druids, an order of priests in ancient Gaul and Britain, took part in an autumn festival called “Samhain” (pronounced sah-win), or “summers end.” It was a celebration of the food that had been grown during the summer. The tradition of decorating with pumpkins, leaves and cornstalks originates with this Druid festival.

 

Halloween dates back to Celtic times, when people who lived in Ireland, Scotland and parts of Great Britain marked their new year. They believed that on that night, past, present and future became one.

 

About 99 percent of pumpkins marketed domestically are used as jack-o’-lanterns at Halloween.

Daddy longlegs are not spiders and do not bite.

Spiders have transparent blood.

There are 690 known species of bats.

There is an average of 50,000 spiders per acre in green areas. Essential to the balance of nature, spiders annually consume 100 times their number in insects.

It would take 27,000 spiders, each spinning a single web, to produce a pound of web.

Vampire bats do not suck blood. They bite, then lick up the flow.

Vampire bats need about 2 tablespoonfuls of blood each day. The creature is able to extract its dinner in approximately 20 minutes.

According to a Gallup poll, 11 percent of the US population believes in ghosts and other supernatural entities.

The skeleton of an average 160 pound body weighs about 29 pounds.

At funerals in ancient China, when the lid of the coffin was closed, mourners took a few steps backward lest their shadows get caught in the box.

Only one person walked with Mozart’s coffin from the church to the cemetery for its burial in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

In Medieval times, church bells were often consecrated to ward off evil spirits. Because thunderstorms were attributed to the work of demons, the bells would be rung in an attempt to stop the storms. Numerous bellringers were killed by lightning.