Although Halloween has morphed into a billion-dollar commercial enterprise, traces of its ancient Celtic past can still be found in many modern-day Halloween customs. Impress your friends with these fun facts about America's spookiest holiday.
Every year, more than 35 million pounds of candy corn are produced, or the equivalent of 9 billion pieces—enough to circle the moon nearly four times if laid end-to-end!
In Ireland and Scotland, the original jack o' lanterns were carved from turnips, potatoes or beets. When these immigrants came to America, they soon discovered that pumpkins offered an ideal medium for fashioning the ghostly figures.
According to census data, the average American consumes 24.5 pounds of candy each year, much of it during the Halloween season.
The first mass-produced Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s.
More than 17,700 participants gathered for the world's largest Halloween gathering at an event organized by the New Orleans Saints and NBC Sports at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 31, 2010.
Halloween's colors are orange and black-orange to symbolize the harvest, and black to symbolize death.
The practice of trick-or-treating likely originated from early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would practice "souling," in which they went from house to house begging for pastries in return for their promise to pray for the families' souls.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Illinois is the nation's leading pumpkin producer, growing 90 percent of America's pumpkins.
The largest pumpkin pie weighed 2,020 pounds and measured 12 feet, 1 inch long. It was made by New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers in Ohio on October 8, 2005.
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