Friday Fun – Please Read NO Further If You Suffer from Samhainophobia

It’s that time of year when our doorbells will be getting their heaviest workout of the year with the ringing and buzzing from impatient Trick or Treaters.

Since Halloween is now the second most commercialized holiday of the year (after Christmas), I thought it'd be a hoot to take a look at some of the history, trivia and fun facts about it.

Oh, yeah … Samhainophobia is the term for a fear of Halloween.

Halloween Comes to Us Via Ireland

Samhain was a sacred Celtic festival that marked the end of the Celtic calendar year.  Celts believed that during Samhain the wall between the present-day world and the afterlife became porous allowing spirits to get through.  So it was a common practice for the Celts to disguise themselves in costumes and masks to befuddle the evil spirits that may be wandering their streets, and thus escape their attention.  While at the same time, covering all their bases, they would put out special food treats to placate them.

As part of the celebration of Samhain, bonfires were lit to ensure the sun would return after the coming long, hard winter.  And Druid priests would throw the bones of cattle into the flames – hence, “bone fire” became “bonfire.”

Catholics had a three-day Hallowmas holiday close to the Samhain time that was designed to honor and pray for the recently deceased.  And in the hopes of winning pagan converts over to them, in the early part of the 11th century the Pope decreed Hallowmas would coincide, lasting from Oct. 31 (All Hallow's Eve) until Nov. 2.

"All Hallow's Eve" then evolved into "All Hallow's Even" – and by the 18th century it was commonly referred to as "Hallowe'en."

But Halloween has also been called Witches Night, Lamswool, Snap-Apple Night, Samhain, and Summer’s End – all centering around harvest time. 

It’s not all Irish that influences the holiday.  Some traditions of Halloween come by way of the ancient Roman festival Pomona, which celebrated the Harvest Goddess of fruit trees who goes by the same name.  That’s where are custom of bobbing for apples at Halloween parties comes from.  And it was the tradition that the whoever got the first bite of the apple would be the next one permitted to marry.

But the Irish did provide the legend behind our ubiquitous Jack-o’-Lanterns.  They’re named after a fellow called Stingy Jack. 

The folklore is that Stingy Jack was out drinking with the Devil when Jack convinced Beelzebub to turn himself into a coin to pay for the drinks so Jack wouldn’t have to.  Jack then put the Devil-turned-coin into his pocket – which just also happened to hold a silver cross, thus preventing the Devil from transforming back.  Jack promised to free the Devil as long as the Devil wouldn’t bother him for a year, and when he died, the Devil would never claim his soul.

Jack played several more tricks like this on the Devil, all designed to ensure that the Devil would never take his soul.  But when Jack finally did die, God was not pleased with his chumminess with the Devil and so decided he wasn’t fit for heaven.  And since the Devil kept his promise to never claim his soul, Jack was sent off to roam Earth with only a burning lump of coal from purgatory for light. 

He put the coal into a turnip carved with opening to serve as a lantern, and Stingy Jack became “Jack of the Lantern” or “Jack o’ Lantern.”  

And the Irish actually carved scary faces preferably into turnips, but also beets and potatoes, to scare away Stingy Jack or any other foreboding spirits of the night.  But when they arrived in America turnips were hard to come by, so they switched to pumpkins.

Halloween wouldn’t be completed without mentioning witches.  The word “witch” comes from the Old English wicce, which means “wise woman.”  Surprisingly, wiccans were highly respected people at one time and were said to hold one of their two main meetings, or sabbats, on Halloween night.  In fact they still celebrate their New Year on Samhain – or Halloween.

Wiccans provide us with their familiar family of fiendish friends – black cats, spiders and bats.  Black cats were often sacrificed by Druid priests in the bonfires during Samhain celebration.  This has led a number of animal shelters to refuse the adoption of black cats during the month of October for fear of similar sick sacrifices.  (Not sure why, but white cats, rather than black cats, are thought to bring bad luck in the UK.  Maybe Lona has some thoughts.)

And those same Samhain bonfires drove away insects – which then attracted bats feasting on a ready-made buffet.

And it seems that the traditions of Halloween keep evolving – even to today.  More and more of us adults are now coopting the holiday for ourselves, apparently not wanting to let go the fond memories of our Halloweens of yesteryear. 

In fact the sale of adult costumes now outpaces that for kids.  It’s anticipated that we’ll spend $2.6 billion on Halloween costumes, broken down as $1 billion on children’s costumes – but $1.2 billion on adult costumes, with another $330 million spent on pet costumes!

About three-quarters of us will hand out candy, half will carve a pumpkin, 20% will visit a haunted house and a little over 10% will costume their critters.

Why, here’s a cat that’s dressing up as the Easter Bunny:

So what about the treats, you ask?  Well, about half of the kids prefer chocolate candy, a quarter want something non-chocolate and about 10% want gum.  (That gum number surprised me.) 

Although Snickers are ranked as the favorite by Trick-or-Treaters, Reese’s actually outsold them for Halloween in 2012: $510 million to $457 million.  And M&M’s were actually the #2 seller at $501 million. 

That’s a LOT of candy, but maybe not so surprising, given that the annual consumption of the stuff in the USA is close to 25# per person!  (Are you doing your share?  I know I am!)

Some fun facts about those ubiquitous Candy Corn Kernels you see at this time of year.  October 30^th is National Candy Corn Day.  Brach's uses the same recipe (sugar, corn syrup and marshmallow) as the original Jelly Belly company did back in 1900.  Although they were actually invented by George Renninger in the 1880’s in Philadelphia. 

It was originally called “Chicken Feed” and didn’t become associated with Halloween until after WWII.  We purchase over 20 million pounds of the Kernels each year, and if Brach’s laid out the Candy Corn Kernels it sells each year end to end, they would wrap around the Earth 4.25 times!

All totaled, we’ll spend close to $6 BILLION dollars to celebrate Halloween.  That includes the costumes, candy and cards – and works out to about $70 per person.  Living in the KCMO Metro – home to Hallmark – we thank you for shelling out for those 19 MILLION Halloween cards that get sent. 

But that only gives it sixth place honors for card-sending.  Christmas comes in first place, with a whopping 1.6 billion cards sent each year!  My guess is Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Birthdays and ??? have more.  But what do you think is in fifth place?

When it comes to the accoutrements of Halloween, it looks like there’s been another world record set this year for the largest pumpkin weighing in at 2,632 pounds – shattering the record set just last year of 2,323 pounds.

And the fastest pumpkin carver honors go to a Stephen Clarke, who got it done in 24.03 seconds – smashing his previous record of 54.72.  The rules of the competition state that the pumpkin must weigh NO less than 24 pounds and be carved in a traditional way, which requires at least eyes, nose, ears, and a mouth.

But I like the boasting rights for most lit Jack-o’-Lanterns with a close race between Boston (30,128) …

And Keene, NH (30,581)

And although 99% of all pumpkins grown end up destined for Jack-o’-Lanterns, some ended up in this record-shattering pumpkin pie measuring 20 feet in diameter and weighing in at 3,699 pounds. It was baked by the New Breman Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio in 2010, breaking their own previous world's record of 2,020 pounds. The ginormous orange pie contained 1,212 pounds of pumpkin, 233 dozen eggs, 109 gallons of evaporated milk, 525 pounds of sugar, 7 pounds of salt, and 14.5 pounds of cinnamon.

But there’s no contest when it comes to the world’s largest Halloween parade.  That goes to the Greenwich Village Halloween parade in New York City with 50,000 participants and over 2 million spectators. 

I actually attended it once back in 1988 – the year that Greg Louganis won his diving Gold Medal in Seoul.  If you recall, Louganis had suffered a concussion and cut his head when he landed head-first on the diving board.  There was this guy who actually looked a lot like Louganis who had a great costume.  His head was poking through a diving board made of Styrofoam with“blood” streaming down his face while walking around in just a Speedo.  Well, it IS the Village!

And a fun fact: In Alabama, it is illegal to dress-up as a priest for Halloween.  I have NO idea why.  Then again, it’s illegal to wear a mask without a permit in Walnut Creek, CA; to go Trick-or-Treating if you’re a teen in Bellville, MO; or to sell,  or even possess, Silly String on the 31^st in Hollywood!

To end on a serious note – be careful out there!  Children are more than twice as likely to be killed in a pedestrian/car accident on Halloween than on any other night of the year. 

And feel free to stash away some of your treats if you or your child makes a killing.  Milk chocolate candy is good for about 9 months, and dark chocolate candy lasts for two years.  Hard candy stays good for about a year.  But watch your intake of treats!  Both the high fructose content found in most candies – or even worse, the sorbitol in sugar-free candies – can cause a case of … well, Republicrrhea.