TOP 10 Unknown Things About Halloween History : <br /> <br />10. The Religious Origins Of Costumes : <br /> <br />While today’s costumes channel an inner fantasy, they started with a much more solemn purpose. One of the earliest examples we have of people donning costumes comes from Hallow Mass, a ceremonial mass dedicated to prayers for the dead. People appealed to their ancestors for everything from happy marriages to fertility, and costumes were a part of that. <br />It wasn’t until the Victorian era that the idea of dressing up really went mainstream, and a lot of that started with the Robert Burns poem “Halloween.” Originally, the best costumes were the ones that were creepy, which isn’t entirely surprising. The Victorians were obsessed with the idea of spirituality and the afterlife, so pioneering the ghost costume made a lot of logical sense. <br /> <br />9. When Halloween Became Sexy : <br /> <br />Halloween is supposed to be scary, so when did we start dressing up as sexy nuns and sexy cops? <br />Dressing up allows people to push boundaries. There was virtually no such thing until the 1970s, and it all started with a convergence of the flamboyant cultures of the gay community, feminism and female empowerment, and the Halloween parades that capitalized on this newfound freedom. Halloween was the day you could get away with things that were in no way acceptable on any other day, and we’ve never looked back. <br /> <br /> <br />8. Halloween And Poisoned Candy : <br /> <br />We’ve already talked about how poisoned Halloween candy being handed out to unsuspecting kids is nearly a complete myth, but Halloween of 1950 did see countless kids get sick. After that fateful October night, scores of children started experiencing gastrointestinal issues, welts, and rashes. So many got sick that it was brought to the attention of the FDA, who finally traced the problem to Orange Dye No. 1. Even though it had already been approved by the government in 1906, more research found that the orange dye (and six other types of food dye) used products resulting from the processing of coal and contained the toxic chemical benzene. It wasn’t until Halloween that enough children ate enough of the dye and got sick enough that it got the attention of the FDA. <br /> <br />7. National Youth Honor Day : <br /> <br />In Omaha in the 1920s, there was so much vandalism going on that 500 teenage boys received a badge for one night only, in the hopes they would help stop the destruction. In 1938, Boston gave awards to the school districts that had the least damage. In 1948, one Long Island doctor’s home was vandalized to the tune of $100,000 in today’s money, and that was just one incident of Halloween rioting that happened across North America in the 1940s. The rioting, vandalism, and (in some cases) racially motivated attacks got so bad that in 1950, the Senate Judiciary Committee started looking at getting rid of Halloween altogether in favor of the National Youth Honor Day. Halloween lovers decided that bribing kids with candy was a better way to go, and trick-or-treating became popular. <br /> <br />6. Bobbing For Apples : <br /> <br />Even if this one is no longer a part most Halloween parties, its pedigree as a Halloween staple is undeniable. The idea went back to the Celtic Samhain, when it was believed that not only did the dead walk the earth on one night, but divination done on that night would be particularly effective. Since apples were always closely tied to fertility and female power, bobbing for apples became a more modernized version of channeling the wisdom of the dead. In some areas, girls would mark apples before bobbing for them, and whichever apple they got was thought to foretell their romantic future. <br /> <br />5. The Original Jack-O-Lanterns : <br /> <br />The roots of this tradition go back to ancient Ireland and a story about a man named Jack, who made the mistake of trying to play a trick on the devil himself. Jack was cursed to walk the earth for eternity, and the only thing he had to guide his way by was a hollowed-out turnip with a burning coal inside. They were terrifying, and people began carving them and putting them around their homes to scare off the evil spirits that walked the land on that one, single night. Unfortunately, the tradition of carving turnips fell by the wayside once Americans discovered that pumpkins were easier to carve. <br /> <br />4. The Real Danger On Halloween : <br /> <br />If no one truly has to worry about poisoned Halloween candy, what is there to worry about? According to studies done by the US government, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an organization called Safe Kids USA, the answer is simple: car accidents. On Halloween night, there has been an average of 5.5 pedestrians killed by cars every year, compared to a 2.6 average deaths on any other day of the year. <br /> <br />3. The Real Deal With Candy Corn : <br />2. The Witch’s Cauldron : <br />1. Halloween Birthdays : <br /> <br />halloween secrets, USA, UK, australia, canada, united kingdom, united states of america
