7 weird Halloween facts that will scare the wits out of you
Oct 30, 2014
Did you know Somerset has it's own super-creepy Halloween traditions? Here's a round up of terrifying facts about the spookiest day of the year
It's the spookiest time of the year - and it might just be scarier than you thought.
Around the world, many countries have their own weird Halloween traditions - and some of them are downright bizarre.
Not to mention the deeply unsettling way they celebrate the festival in Somerset, where they call it 'punkie night'.
So prepare to be chilled to your very core with these terrifying Halloween facts.
1. If you bite into a Halloween cake and hit a thimble, you'll be unlucky in love
Getty
Try not to get the thimble
Part of the Halloween tradition in colonial America involved the baking of a Halloween cake.
Bakers would hide various things in the cake to tell the future. A thimble was a symbol of bad luck with the ladies or gentlemen.
Also, presumably, a sign that you've got a costly visit to the dentist in your near future.
2. The village of Hinton St George in Somerset celebrates 'Punkie Night' - its own deeply creepy Halloween celebration
Punkie Night is only celebrated in Hinton St George, Somerset and has similarities to Halloween pic.twitter.com/PhKXUlqU1G
— Media Critic + (@MustansarDar) October 30, 2014
The villages of Hinton St George and Lopen in Somerset have their very own twist on Halloween, and it's dead creepy.
Historically, the tradition involved children marching around with jack o'lanterns - or 'punkies' - begging for candles and money, and threatening those who wouldn't cough up. So far, so trick-or-treat, right?
Well, what makes it extra sinister, is the fact that this band of marauding youngsters is generally led by a Punkie King and Punkie Queen - and they sing a song.
The song goes:
It's Punkie Night tonight It's Punkie Night tonight Adam and Eve would not believe It's Punkie Night tonight
And here's how it sounds - as performed by Carl Turney and Brian Campbell from the band Clinic.
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Shudder.
3. Michael Myers' mask in the movie Halloween was the face of William Shatner
Michael Myers/William Shatner in Halloween
Because the film had an incredibly low budget, the prop department on horror classic Halloween had to dress serial killer Michael Myers in the cheapest mask they could find in their local fancy dress shop.
Turns out that was a mask of William Shatner, which cost them the princely sum of $2.
They modified it a bit, spray painted it white and made it a bit scarier and it became one of the iconic images of horror cinema.
The cheapo slasher went on to take $70m at the worldwide box office, more than 215 times its $325,000 budget. That makes it the most profitable film ever to feature William Shatner's face, beating Star Trek II and Miss Congeniality.
Shatner also claims to have gone trick-or-treating in the mask of his own face.
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4. Jack o'lanterns were originally made from turnips
Museum of Country Life
Nope
The British tradition of carving a scary face into a vegetable was originally done with turnips.
When Irish immigrants took the idea of the jack o'lantern to America, they started using pumpkins, because they were cheaper than turnips.
Not to mention making nicer soup. And lattes.
But we think you'll agree, turnips are way, way scarier.
5. If you're in Germany on Halloween, hide the knives
Knives. Hide them, for fear of ghost injury
They celebrate Halloween in Germany, but as a time to honour and respect the dead.
One tradition is to hide all the knives in the house, for fear that returning spirits might injure themselves on any knives that are left out.
There are a number of logical problems with this tradition - not least of which is that ghosts tend to be dead already, so how much damage can a knife realistically do? But if you start applying logic to the idea of the dead walking the Earth...
6. If you're in Italy, you can enjoy the Beans of the Dead
Fave dei Morti, the beans of the dead
In Italy they have a traditional Halloween recipe, which is kind of an oval cookie a bit like a macaron. It's called Fave dei Morti, which roughly translates as Beans of the Dead.
Beans of the Dead sounds like the great lost George A Romero zombie movie nobody's been waiting for.
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7. Chances are, if your trick-or-treat sweets have been poisoned, a family member did it
This almost never happens
There are all kinds of urban myths about the mean old crone or crazed madman in the tumble-down shack slipping poison or dangerous items into cakes and candy for the unsuspecting cherubs who knock on their door on Halloween.
But in reality almost every case of Halloween candy tampering has been performed by a family member.
For example, there was the case of Ronald O'Bryan, who laced his son's sweets with cyanide in Texas in 1974. Or the case in Detroit in 1970, where 5-year-old Kevin Toston died of a heroin overdose after he found his uncle's stash of the drug. His family later sprinkled heroin over his Halloween candy to try and protect his uncle.
And of the cases of foreign objects hidden in sweets - like needles or razor blades - all but a handful have been hoaxes, or the media jumping on a story which turned out to be untrue.
There was, however, the case in Manchester of a 23-year-old man who was giving out baggies of cocaine to kids instead of sweets - though he didn't hide it in any sweets, and police said he'd given the items "in error."
