What is the History of Halloween

Fact 1 – Halloween Turnips?

So he then went to Hell, since he had made the promise the devil would not take his soul, and instead threw him a piece of glowing ember, which Jack then placed inside a turnip which he had in his pocket and was doomed to walk the earth for ever

Fact 2 – Halloween Costumes?

Where did the idea of wearing scary costumes come from, and dressing up as ghosts and spooks? Well this tradition came from an old Celtic belief where they believed that on the night when they moved from one year to the next that the dead and the living overlapped, so the townspeople would disguise themselves as demons and spirits, which would allow then to escape the notice of the real spirits and demands roaming the streets of Ireland during in Samhain, it was also believed that as well as being able to blend in, masked men would also try to get the attention of the spirits and lead them away from the town

Also when this tradition first started you was unable to go to your local shop and buy a Halloween costume, so all of the town’s people would have to make their own costumes which consisted of animal heads and skins

Fact 3 – Trick or Treat…

Trick or treating is well known as being part of Halloween, but it first started in America in the early 20th century after the Irish immigrants came with all of their traditions, and was used widely by orphans and widows to beg for food or money and in exchange for songs or prayers, the reason behind those was that Samhain / Halloween marked the end of the summer and the beginning of the cold and dark nights, and they needed the supplies to help them survive the winter months, and was soon known as beggars night

It has always been believed to not take sweets from strangers, but in fact, you must be carefully taking sweats from everyone, including your friends and family, read the true stories below

Ronald O'Bryan, Texas (1974) - Nicknamed The Candy Man, Ronald O’Bryan is the monster of Halloween as he murdered his son Timothy who was aged 8 with a cyanide-laced treat, the story behind this is that Ronald O’Bryan was $100,000 in debt and also about to lose his job for stealing from work

So he decided to take out life insurance on his 2 children Timothy & Elizabeth, he then got 5 giant pixy Stix’s and exchanged some of the filling with cyanide and gave them to his 2 children, also 2 of them to his friends children, and also 1 to one of the other child out trick or treating that evening, later that evening Timothy complained of stomachache and soon passed away, lucky the other children did not manage to eat their giant pixy Stix before they were taken away from them

Kevin Toston, Detroit (1970) – This is a very said story as this was not a planned murder like the last, this was just an accident as Kevin Toston aged only 5, Kevin was looking for sweets and found his uncle’s heroin drug stash, and as a result was in a coma for 4 days before he passed away, his family then in an attempt to protect his uncle, sprinkled the heroin over Kevin Toston’s candy

Fact 4 – Witches

Did you know that it was not only ladies that were thought to practice in the art of black magic. Men were also thought to practice and were known as wizards, warlocks or sorcerers. People also believed in white magic, and a good witch like the witch in the Wizard of Oz was thought to be known as a healer

Also, did you know that witches were not burned at the stake but instead were hanged if found guilty of witchcraft, in fact people could be convicted of witchcraft without any solid evidence at all. The courts would even accept it if one of the witness had a dream of the accused appearing in their sleep or even a mark on the skin of the accused

In addition, the word witch is unknown to where it originated from but is thought to have come from the word wicce, which is from the Old English Dictionary. The meaning of this word was known as wise woman, and this was thought to be a highly respected person at that time

Traditions are a strange thing and according to this tradition if you wear your cloths inside out and then walk backwards at midnight on the night of Halloween then it is said that you will see a witch. The courts would even accept it if one of the witness had a dream of the accused appearing in their sleep or even a mark on the skin of the accused, in addition, the word witch is unknown to where it originated from but is thought to have come from the word wicce, which is from the Old English Dictionary. The meaning of this word was known as wise woman, and this was thought to be a highly respected person at that time

Traditions are a strange thing and according to this tradition if you wear your cloths inside out and then walk backwards at midnight on the night of Halloween then it is said that you will see a witch

Fact 5 – The Halloween Movie

This film when made was on a very small budget, the mask of the charter Michael Myers was the face of William Shatner from the well-known show Star Trek as Captain James Kirk. The reason for this was due to the low budget the props department had to dress Michael Myers in the cheapest mask and outfit that they could find

Only after a visit to the local fancy dress shop they managed to pick up the mask for only $2, then with some spray paint and a bit of work from the props team the Michael Myers mask was created, the making of the film cost a total of $325,000. The film then took $70 million in worldwide box office sales, which was more them 215 times the cost of the making of the film

We hope that you enjoyed reading our 5 facts about What is the History of Halloween. If you have a spooky tail, then please let us know in the comments below.