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Halloween is the 2nd most commercially successful holiday in the US calendar after Christmas .
Orange and black are Halloween colors because orange is the color of Fall, of harvest and black stands for death, decay and darkness.
In the United States, Halloween candy sales average about 2 billion dollars in one year.
Black cats are believed to be witch's familiars who protected their powers. It’s also believed that witches sometimes move about in the guise of black cats.
If a person has a joint brow, hairy palms, tattoos, and a long middle finger, it indicates traces of a werewolf in him/ her.
The Count Dracula Society was founded in the year 1962.
For many decades, the United Nations Childrens' Fund (UNICEF) has given out boxes to children so that they can collect money on Halloween. During the 1950's, some US public schools prohibited these boxes, because they suspected it to be a Communist plot.
An old belief in England is that the best time to spot fairies is between twilight and midnight with the best days Halloween (October 31), May Day, Midsummer Day (June 24), Lady Day (March 25) and Christmas (December 25)
For more than 20 years, the town of Hancock, MD has declined to assign a specific date for Halloween celebrations. They hold that if they set aside a particular date for the holiday and a kid gets hurt during the trick-or-treating then the town might be liable for the injuries and damages.
The school board of Hillsborough NJ shuns all religious observances in its premises. They have replaced Halloween with a ‘Fall Festival’ and Valentine's Day with ‘Special Person Day’.
A few Evangelical Christian churches offer substitute ways for Halloween celebrations. While some inspire their associates to distribute Bible tracts along with or instead of Halloween candy treats, others hold Trunk-or-Treat parties, in which members park their cars in the parking lot of the church, distribute treats from the car-trunks and invite the children into the church for a Christian party. Costumes are permitted only if it’s in keeping with the Christian environment.
This trivia is quite interesting too—It’s said that if you can catch a leaf as it falls below, you would not catch a cold during the following winter, and if you catch it between Michaelmas (September 29) and Halloween (October 31), the following year would be a fulfilling and prosperous one.
Hazel nuts were believed to have mystical powers which helped one see the future. The nut was (or so was believed) at its strongest on Halloween night. For this reason, the Halloween night was also called 'Nutcrack Night' in England. Lovers often used hazelnuts to gain foresight into their relationships.
One very popular Halloween game for young maidens was to place a row of hazel nuts along the edge of a hot fire grate. Each nut was then assigned a name, including the name of the person she wished to wed. Next the following rhyme was pronounced “If you love me pop and fly; if you hate me, burn and die”. The rest, of course, you can pretty well guess !
America reserves two age-old love superstitions for the young women. It’s believed that if a young maiden looked into the waters of a nearby spring at Halloween night carrying a lantern, she would be able to see the face of her husband-to-be. She can also wait until dawn to see this miracle. At dawn, she must place a broken egg in a glass when she arrives at the spring. Then she should pour some of the fresh water into the glass with the egg. As the belief goes, she is supposed to spot the face of her future husband along with the faces of children that the couple may have after some time.
In England a young maiden was believed to be able to see her future husband in the candle light reflection of a mirror. She should then throw an apple peel over her shoulder. The initial that it formed when it landed was said to be the first letter of her true love’s name.
This one’s real whacky for all pumpkin-lovers across the globe—the Native American name for pumpkins is ‘isquotersquash’. The world's largest pumpkin weighed 1,061 pounds. Guess how many pies it produced if a 4-pound pumpkin yields about 4 cups of mashed pumpkin meat ? Quite a hap-pie number indeed !
Sean Carter writes on holidays, halloween and celebrations around the world. He also writes on family, relationships,womens issues birthdays, inspiration, religion, love and friendship. He is a writer with special interest in ecard industry. He writes for 123greetings.com
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