36 Halloween Traditions You Might’ve Missed

The custom of dressing up also dates back to the ancient Celtic celebration of Samhain. During Samhain, the people would light bonfires and don costumes to fend off ghosts who might ruin their harvests.

Europe is where apple bobbing first appeared hundreds of years ago. The game's goal - to predict one's future love life - remains the same despite its many variations. The game was a popular method to bring young lovers together and aid them in determining whether or not they were soulmates.

Due to Halloween's fall-winter association, black and orange were purposefully chosen as the holiday's colors. Black depicts the long, cold winter and nighttime, whereas orange is the color of fire and the fall season since the hue is reminiscent of harvest.

A while back, groups of families would decorate their basements and host "house-to-house" parties for the neighboring kids as a form of entertainment. Kids would spook themselves by moving from basement to basement and encountering different scary settings.

As the Celts used turnips, potatoes, and beets instead of pumpkins, the pumpkin aspect of the tradition is uniquely American. However, the Celts believed that the light within the turnip (or pumpkin) chased away evil spirits, which is why they were placed on porches and window sills to protect those inside the house.

Regardless of one's opinions on ghosts and their existence, telling ghost stories is a tradition that has persisted across many cultures, though the manner and motivation for doing so have changed with time. Sometimes, particularly with youngsters, frightening tales are used to discourage particular behaviors. In addition to being employed for entertainment, scary stories featuring supernatural creatures have often been used to explain the unexplainable. Even those who dislike being afraid find things that go bump in the night intriguing, contributing to the millennia-old tradition of recounting ghost stories.

As soon as the first bunch of Halloween movies was released, binging on multiple scary movies was a no-brainer of an activity to do on Halloween.

Candle-lit pumpkins with spooky faces are a surefire indication that Halloween is approaching. Large turnips and potatoes served as the early canvases in Ireland, where the tradition of carving jack-o-lanterns began. In actuality, Stingy Jack is a character in an Irish folktale from which the name "jack-o'-lantern" originates. Irish immigrants brought the custom to America, the home of pumpkins, quickly establishing it as a holiday staple.

Candy apples are said to have been created accidentally in 1908 by candy maker William Kolb from Newark, New Jersey. Interestingly, though, these apples were never intended to be eaten. A new Halloween custom is believed to have started when William Kolb accidentally mixed some apples into his candy syrup.

Black cats have a long history of being associated with witches, witchcraft, and black magic. According to legend, the myth originated when a black cat was seen entering a house that was considered to be inhabited by a witch. Black cats that prowl at night have historically been interpreted as witches, witches' pets, or demons in animal form sent by witches to spy on humans.

People start putting up their Halloween decorations as soon as early September. While the tradition began as occasional jack-o-lanterns on front porches and maybe a skeleton or creepy spider web, now it's not unusual to see entire neighborhoods decked out in black, with witches, faux graveyards, and even Halloween lights. With Halloween being heavily commercialized, it's estimated that in 2022 Americans will spend around $3.4 billion on Halloween decorations.

When it comes to Halloween cookies, you can go all crazy with the shape, food coloring, icing, and toppings. And you better serve them cookies on your Halloween shindig, so Cookie Monster can pay you a visit.

With the howling winds of October come haunted mazes. Whether 'playing' or 'surviving' is a more fitting word depends on the maze's difficulty and horror level, as some might be appropriate for the whole family, and some might be adults only. Yet, the haunted corn maze is a place to go for all seekers of spook and thrill. If you have ever wondered what it's like to be the main character of a horror movie, think twice about whether you are willing to take the risk. But beware of the creatures lurking in the dark because you are never alone in the corn maze...

While this may end in hysteria if the kids don't get the candy they want, candy shopping for kids and trick-or-treaters can be fun and put you in a festive mood. 

It is believed that the Celts left food outside their homes for the ghosts and spirits in exchange so they would eat the food and not harm the people inside.

The Celts believed that lighting a candle in the window would ward off evil spirits and prevent them from approaching your door. So would building bonfires.

Whether to help your guests find the entrance to a Halloween shindig or let the trick-or-treaters know that they are welcome to knock on the door, decking your door for Halloween is a clear sign that your household is up for some spookalicious Halloween fun.

Not only are pumpkin carving contests fun, but they often involve a monetary prize! Yet, the key to winning a pumpkin contest is standing out from the pack. You must think outside the box to impress the judges and create something they have never seen before. And that's a challenge!

Similarly to seeing a haunted house, visiting a horror room can be no less spooky, if not even more horrifying. Often, horror rooms allow only a limited number of people or a small group to ensure everyone gets the full frightening experience. While visiting the horror room may take no more than two hours, the impressions will keep haunting you long after the visit is over.

During Samhain, the villagers played harmless pranks on one another. Still, it wasn't until much later that the first forms of trick-or-treating as we know it today emerged. In the 18th and 19th centuries, immigrants from Ireland and Scotland brought their Halloween superstitions to America, and their children became the first American masterminds of mischief. Kids cut down shrubs, hooked opposing apartment doorknobs together, hung ropes across walkways to trip people in the dark, rattled or soaped windows, and rattled or soaped shrubs.

The first Halloween festivities took place in America to celebrate the harvest season. The food mainly consisted of prepared seasonal treats like caramel apples and mixed nuts. The tradition known today as trick-or-treating didn't gain popularity in the United States until the 1950s. Nuts and homebaked goods used to be typical trick-or-treat offerings. Yet, when the confectionery industry got involved, things changed. They had already persuaded consumers that they needed candy around Christmas and Easter, searching for a similarly lucrative opportunity to advertise sweets in the fall. Soon, the candy packaging was reduced to smaller, bite-sized portions, and they were marketed as Halloween treats.

Decorating the house for Halloween can make a dip in one's pocket. And it shouldn't! An abundance of Halloween-themed DIY and craft ideas online can surely make up for store-bought decorations if not turn out even better! Also, crafting should be interesting both for younger and older Halloweeners and keep them occupied for hours.

The town of St. Helens, Oregon, which served as the location for numerous scenes in a 1998 Disney cult classic "Halloweentown," turns into a real place every October. However, the town of St. Helens isn't the only Halloween-themed town in the world. In many cities worldwide, locals and communities turn their cities or parts of the cities into Halloween towns this time of the year, so do some research and start planning your trip to the nearest one!

Celts, a collection of tribes from whom Halloween's history stems, believed that the night before the new year, which they celebrated on November 1, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred, and the spirits would emerge from their graves and visit the living.

Trick or treating wasn't common in Scotland until recently. Instead, kids dressed up as evil spirits and went "guising" (also known as "galoshin"). The practice originates from the belief that by masking kids this way, they would mix in with the nocturnal spirits roaming the streets. After performing tricks or songs, guisers were given gifts, such as fruit or nuts, to help ward off the evil spirits.

In medieval folklore, bats, along with black cats, were called witches' "familiars." On Halloween, spotting a bat was regarded as a really foreboding sign. It was believed that ghosts were present if a bat entered the house.

Most historical reports date the creation of candy corn to the 1880s when George Renninger, a worker at the Wunderle Candy Company, came up with the idea of shaping buttercream into a corn kernel. Although the specific recipe is unknown, sugar and corn syrup were most likely the key components of his buttercream. The candy was soon associated with Halloween as it was the ideal size for handing out to trick-or-treaters and had a festive color scheme.

It wasn't until Walt Disney decided to construct one that haunted houses rose to fame. The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland opened in 1969, over two decades after Disney gave the risky project their blessing. The attraction, which was styled after the Winchester Mystery House and the Evergreen House, immediately gained popularity. Soon after it opened, the Haunted Mansion saw more than 82,000 visitors in a single day.

Whether filled with fake spiders, ceramic eyeballs, DVDs of your favorite Halloween movies, spooky cards, creepy books, and, of course, loads of candy, a 'scary' package is a perfect surprise for a friend or a gift to bring to a Halloween party.

While it's not officially the season of Glühwein, aka mulled wine, it's the season for all things pumpkin spice: lattes, ciders, and cookies.

A house-visiting custom known as mummering, or mumming, is practiced in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ireland, Philadelphia, and some regions of the United Kingdom. It is also known as mumming or janneying and often involves a group of friends or family visiting homes in their neighborhood or other neighborhoods while disguising themselves. The mummers frequently perform a variety of informal performances when invited into a home, such as dance, music, jokes, or recitations.

While not exactly a Halloween custom, this is definitely a fun activity that could become a tradition between your housemates or your family. Themed dinner party? Halloween is the perfect occasion to do so. Who will attend the dinner, skeletons, witches, ghouls, or vampires, and what you will serve as the main dish is entirely up to you.

The practice of sending and receiving cards on Christmas, birthdays, and Valentine's Day is standard. Why should Halloween be an exception? Especially considering how many cute Halloween pick-up lines one could write on the card!

The perfect activity for family and friends. Just look up if there are any pumpkin walks happening near you!

Bloody Marys and punch aren't the only appropriate drinks for Halloween. There are multiple recipes online, both for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, which not only look paranormal, undrinkable, even, but also taste delicious.

It wasn't until the 1920s that the term 'trick-or-treating' became popular in America. Today, it remains one of America's biggest Halloween traditions. While the original premise of the tradition involved a trick-or-treater "earning" the candy by reciting a poem or singing a song, today, it's no longer expected.