Facts You Never Knew About Halloween

Halloween’s Beliefs and Customs

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On Halloween night, if unmarried women sit in a pitch-dark room gazing into a mirror, the face of their future husbands would appear in the mirror. Nevertheless, if they are destined to die before marriage, a skull would appear. This belief was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting card from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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In Scotland, fire rituals were very important and were lit in a village, or by individual families. According to Wiki, when this fire died down, its ashes were used to form a circle and one stone for each member of the household was kept inside this circle near the circumference. If any stone were displaced or seemed broken by next morning, then the person to whom that stone belonged was believed to be destined to die within a year. A similar rite in north Wales includes a great bonfire called Coel Coeth’ being built for each family on Halloween. Later, the members of the household threw a white stone in the ashes marked in their name. Next morning, all the stones were searched for and if any stone were missing, then the person who threw that stone was believed to be destined to die before next Halloween.

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Other interesting Scottish custom is that they believed candle lanterns protect their houses. If the evil spirits passed the lanterns, they would offer the spirits parcels of food to leave and spare the house for the following year. Children were given protection by disguising themselves into such creatures in an attempt to blend in with the spirits. If the children got passed the door of a house, they would be given offerings of foods to ward off the potential spirits that might lurk among them. Salt was once sprinkled in the hair of the children to protect against evil spirits.

In England, in a game called “bobbing for apples”, participants are required to catch an apple which is placed in a water-filled barrel using their mouths. If they manage to catch the apple, it is peeled and tossed over the shoulder in the hope that the strips would fall into the shape of a letter, which would then be the first initial letter of the participant’s true love. According to this custom, the peeler’s life will be longer, if the peel of the apple is longer, and some believe that the participant who first caught the apple would be the first to marry.

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In Mexico, the children will stop at their neighborhood’s houses, knock at their doors or ring the bell and say “¡Noche de Brujas, Halloween!” (’Witches’ Night–Halloween!’).

Visiting Haunted Places

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Visiting haunted places like a haunted house or hayride (particularly in the northeastern or Midwest of the USA) is another activity done around Halloween. Some of these events may not be necessarily held to meet the actual ghosts, but they take the scenes or themes of supernatural characters or presentations from horror movies which are regarded as the “haunted trail,” in which public come to meet with the supernatural-themed figures. In the United States, Knott’s Halloween Haunt at California’s Knott’s Berry Farm, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Disney land Resort, the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando and Hollywood become the largest Halloween attractions for their annual Halloween events.

Halloween’s Food

A traditional Halloween meal called Colcannon is eaten at lunch-time (in Ireland, midday-meal sometimes refers to “dinner”). This meal is always mixed with coins wrapped in grease-proof paper.

“Barmbrack” is the traditional Halloween cake in Ireland. It is a key feature of an Irish custom. It contains various objects such as a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a ring and a small coin (originally, a silver sixpence was used) baked into the bread which is used as a sort of fortune-telling game. Each item signifies a meaning to the people concerned: the pea, the person would not marry that year; the stick, “to beat one’s wife with”, would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes; the cloth or rag, would have bad luck or be poor; the ring, would be married within the year; and the coin, would enjoy good fortune or be rich.

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As Halloween is the holiday comes in the wake of annual apple harvest, the apples are used to make candy apple, or commonly known as toffee or taffy apples. They are made by rolling whole apples in sticky sugar syrup, and sometimes rolling them in nuts.

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I’m Jack…It’s time…I’m right here waiting….heeheehee…

The black cat growls in horror, “miaooooo…..!!!!”

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This is the night He comes home…..right here waiting there….

Happy Halloween, hheeee….hehehe…hhhaaha…