3. There's A Feud Over The 'Halloween Capital Of The World'
Despite its origin in Europe two American cites, Salem, Massachusetts and Anoka, Minnesota are both the self-proclaimed "Halloween Capital of the World". Anoka because it hosted one of the first Halloween parades in 1920 which it continues to celebrate each year with several parades while Salem is infamous for the witch trails in the 1860s. Today however New York boasts the largest Halloween parade.
2. Halloween Costumes Started As Ghost Protection
Today costumes are based off popular culture and traditional imagery such as Dracula and Frankensteins monster and are done purely for fun. Dressing up in costumes originally came from fear and has come from both European and Celtic roots. During the celebration of Samhain, the Celts wore costumes typically consisting of animal heads and skins and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes for the dark winter outside. To avoid these specters people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. These same people would people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter ones home.
1. Candy Makers Tried To Rig Daylight Savings Time To Sell More Sweets
Halloween is second to Christmas for amount of revenue it generates yearly. As Halloween has become largely commercialized it may have become political. The revenues from Halloween for the candy industry supposedly influenced creation of Daylight Savings Time in the United States. Candy makers supposedly lobbied to extend daylight savings time into the beginning of November to get an extra hour of daylight so children could collect even more candy, thus resulting in people purchasing more candy to meet the demand. Supposedly a company wanted it so badly that during the 1985 hearings on Daylight Savings they put candy pumpkins on the seat of every senator, according to NPR. The candy industry disputes this account, according to The New York Times).