Halloween Trivia

• "Phasmophobia" is the fear of ghosts.

• A cup of candy corn has fewer calories than a cup of raisins.

• It's illegal to sell a haunted house in New York without informing the buyer.

• Eighty-two percent of children take part in Halloween festivities, as do 67 percent of adults.

• The first jack-o'-lanterns were made of turnips.

• "Samhainophobia" is the morbid fear of Halloween.

• Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year when it comes to candy sales—estimated at $1.93 billion. One quarter of all the candy sold each year is purchased between September 15 and November 10.

• The word witch comes from the Saxon word wicca, which means "wise one."

• Pumpkins also come in white, blue and green.

• In France, more than 30,000 werewolf cases were tried between 1520 and 1630.

• Dracula is the most filmed story of all time.

• The biggest pumpkin on record weighed 1,385 pounds. It was weighed in October 2003 at a pumpkin festival in Canby, Oregon.

• Trick-or-treating is an Irish tradition, based on a custom where wealthy landowners would give food to the poor on Halloween night, believing ghosts would look favorably on them for doing so and spare them from mischief.

• In Romanian, Dracula means "Son of the Devil."

• The Scots believed in "Samhanach," a goblin who came out only on Halloween and stole children.

• Halloween costume sales are estimated at $1.5 billion.

• Eighty percent of kids say their favorite Halloween candy is either chocolate or gum.

• Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables.

• Pennslyvania was the first colony to legalize witchcraft.

• There is a poisonous mushroom called a jack-o'-lantern. These mushrooms are a bright orange-yellow in color and on rainy nights they appears to glow in the dark.

• Fifty-one percent of all American adults believe in ghosts. Nine percent of Americans claim to have been in the presence of a ghost during their lifetime.

• Americans consume about 20 million pounds of candy corn each year.

• The Count Dracula Society was founded in 1962.

• In the 17th and 18th centuries, people in costumes and masks would go from house to house, singing and dancing to keep evil at bay. These people were known as "guisers."

• Americans spend about $50 million on Halloween greetings.

• According to studies, the smell of pumpkin pie is the most arousing to women, followed by lavender, cucumbers, baby powder and Good & Plenty candy.

• At one time, there were public trials and convictions of animals for witchcraft.

• In Lewis, Scotland, Halloween was once celebrated by designating one man to wade into the evening sea and offer a cup of ale to Shoney, a sea god.

• In the North of England, Halloween was called "nut-crack" and "snap-apple night."

• Ninety-nine percent of pumpkins sold in the U.S. are used to make jack-o'-lanterns.

• The first Frankenstein film was produced by Thomas Edison in 1910.

• The average U.S. household spends $44 on Halloween candy

• There is a Transylvania County in North Carolina.

• According to superstition, you will see your future spouse over your left shoulder in the mirror at midnight on Halloween.

• "Wiccaphobia" is the fear of witches and witchcraft.

• October 30 is National Candy Corn Day.

• A popular Halloween drink in 18th century Ireland was "lambs-wool," which consisted of roasted, crushed apples mixed into milk.

• Dan Rather was born on Halloween, as was Jane Pauley.

• Celts believed black cats were once people who had been turned into animals with evil magic.