Halloween

Halloween Trivia:

1. Halloween is the only holiday that the United States Postal Service still delivers the mail.

2. Halloween is the only non-patriotic and non-Christian holiday.

3. Halloween is perhaps the oldest holiday and dates back to pre-Christian, and pre-Roman times.

4. The Mexican "Day of the Dead" holiday was originally celebrated in August, but the Spanish Christian Missionaries moved the date to the end of October to coincide with Halloween and "All Saints Day"

5. The Christian feast day "All Saints Day" was specifically placed the day after Halloween to counter and minimize the Pagan influences in culture, and (of course) to remind people of the "Truth."

6. The pumpkin is an indigenous North American plant.  Irish immigrants invented the jack-o-lantern.  In Ireland they used the turnip to make "glowing spirit heads" but in the "New World" substituted the pumpkin -- to great effect.

7. In Celtic lore, on Halloween night, the spirits of the dead wander the Earth looking for victims and the people must stay up all night around bonfires for mutual protection.

copyright (c) 2017
William Schaeffer