Posts Tagged ‘candy’
Halloween is one of the most popular holidays in the American holiday calendar. Halloween costumes have not always been worn. The origins of Halloween go back thousands of years to the Celtic people of Ireland and Britain. The ancient Celts had a different calendar than the one we use today, and on the Celtic calendar the new year started on November 1. The night before was called Samhain, and it was believed by the Celts that on that night the spirits of the dead would be able to return to the world of living and play tricks on the living. The Celts used to carve gourds, which are small squashes, into scary faces instead of pumpkins. They would put lit candles in the gourds to light them up and scare away the spirits.
Halloween today is a fun holiday full of magic and make-believe. The majority of Americans celebrate Halloween by trick or treating or attending costume parties, giving out treats and watching scary movies. Here are some fun facts about the celebration of Halloween in the US:
1. 38 million children under the age of 13 went trick or treating in 2008. Even though that number wasn’t as high as the number of kids who went trick or treating the year before that is still a lot of kids who did enjoy trick or treating. That number doesn’t include the number of teens and adults who also went trick or treating. You’re never too old to go trick or treating.
2. 93% of households in the US felt that their neighborhoods were safe enough to trick or treat in as of 2008. That number may surprise you, since so many cities and towns now hold supervised trick or treating events at local malls because neighborhood trick or treating is considered to be unsafe. Most of the people surveyed said that they felt very safe taking their kids trick or treating in their own neighborhoods.
3. At last count in 2007 there were more than 110 million occupied homes in the US. That’s a lot of potential candy! Most people think of trick or treating as something that is done from house to house many kids who live in apartments with their parents trick or treat in their apartment buildings where they can get a nice haul of candy without going outside.
4. More than a billion pounds of pumpkins are grown for Halloween – All over the country farmers grow huge pumpkin patches just for Halloween. Since pumpkins are the primary decoration for the entire autumn season, not just for Halloween, they are in high demand from the end of September to the middle of November. Illinois produced the most pumpkins of any state in 2007.
5. In 2007 Americans ate an average of 24 pounds of candy per person – Can you imagine eating 24 pounds of candy? You probably did, but just didn’t realize it since you didn’t eat it all at once. This Halloween after you go trick or treating weigh your treats to see how many pounds of candy you’re eating that are just from Halloween treats.