🎃 10 Things to Know About Halloween - 10/31/2023
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The Ten News: Season 4, Episode 18
🎃 10 Things to Know About Halloween
1. ⚰️ A 2,000 Year-old Holiday
2. 🕯️ Legend of the Jack O'Lantern
3. 🥔 Vegetable-Carving Traditions
4. 🪄 A Bunch of Hocus Pocus
5. 💭 What is Belsnickeling?
6. 🥸 Most Popular Costumes of 2023
7. 🐾 Most Pup-ular Costumes of 2023
8. 🌽 From Chicken Feed to Candy Corn
9. 🍬 Beggar's Night Breakdown
10. 🎃 Fastest Pumpkin Carver Around
Resources
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/halloween-ideas/a35150/halloween-facts/
https://www.history.com/news/history-of-the-jack-o-lantern-irish-origins
https://www.today.com/life/holidays/halloween-facts-rcna35785
https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2021/10/the-origins-of-halloween-traditions/
https://www.countryliving.com/life/g37154795/halloween-facts/
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/fastest-time-to-carve-one-pumpkin
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TRANSCRIPT:
INT. TEN NEWS STUDIO
<SFX spooky Halloween sounds>
RYAN: HAAAAAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEN!
PAM: Thanks, Ryan. I had a lot of fun doing our Halloween takeover last week. Ten’ers if you haven’t heard it, the episode link is in the show notes!
RYAN: Halloween is obviously the word of the week. So I’ve decided that I’m going to do as many crazy voices as I possibly can in this episode.
PAM: Oh boy. Okay, well, I’m Pamela Kirkland…
RYAN: I’m Ryan Willard. It’s Tuesday, October 31st.
PAM: This is Ten Things You Need to Know about the spookiest holiday of the year!
PAM: First up, did you know that Halloween dates back to more than 2,000 years ago? That means your great, great, great, greater, greatest, and greatest-est ancestors trick or treated, too! Actually, instead they celebrated with feasts, dressed up in costumes to trick the spirits, and held sacrificial bonfires to ward off ghosts. The festival was called Samhain (sah-win), which is Gaelic for ‘summers’ end. It took place on the last day of fall harvest, which was believed to be when the veil between the living and spirit world was thinnest, allowing spirits to cross over into the real world.
RYAN: Number 2, the myth of the Jack O’ Lantern! It’s believed that Jack O’Lanterns originated from an Irish legend about a man named Stingy Jack. According to legend, Stingy Jack invited the Devil for a drink and Jack convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin for Jack to pay with. Jack kept the money, put it in his pocket next to a silver cross, and prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form.
PAM: These tricks continued over the years and Jack eventually passed away. And, due to his acts he wasn’t accepted into Heaven or H-e-double-hockey sticks. Instead, the Devil sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack then carved a TURNIP, put the coal inside, and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. His ghostly figure was referred to as ‘Jack of the Lantern’ by the Irish, then simply turned into ‘Jack O’Lantern.’
RYAN: Speaking of Jack O’Lanterns, In Ireland and Scotland, people created their own versions of Jack’s Lantern by carving scary faces into turnips and putting them in windows to ward off evil spirits. And, in England, large beets were used until immigrants from these countries brought their vegetable-carving traditions to the United States, eventually making the switch to pumpkins!
RYAN: Number 4, now you might say that this one is just a bunch of hocus-pocus, but Disney almost made Hocus Pocus a completely different movie! The film was supposed to be called Disney’s Halloween House and much, much spookier. Leonardo DiCaprio was also offered to play Max Dennison but turned down the role to appear in ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’, instead.
PAM: Belsnickle!
RYAN: Bless you.
PAM: No, that wasn’t a sneeze… I said Bell-Snickle. Belsnickeling, according to the Library of Congress, is an old German-American tradition in which children dress up in costumes for Christmas, visit their neighbors, have them guess who lurked behind the masks. And, if their neighbors guessed wrong, they would have to fork up some treats, making it a possible origin of modern-day trick-or-treating! Time for a quick break, and then we’ll be back with Halloween costumes and a love it or hate it candy.
RYAN: We’re back boos & ghouls, and we have the scoop on the most popular Halloween costumes of 2023.
1. Barbie
2. Princess
3. Spider-Man
4. Witch
5. Fairy
6. Wednesday Addams
7. Dinosaur
8. Cowboy
9. Ninja
10. Bunny
PAM: And, we can’t forget about our furry friends! We’re unsure whether the pets love the costumes but it’s 100% confirmed that their owners do. In fact, it’s projected that consumers will spend nearly 1 billion dollars on pet costumes, and here are the most popular:
1. Pumpkin
2. Hot dog
3. Bat
4. Bumblebee
5. Spider
RYAN: Number 8, we can’t share Ten Things about Halloween and not include something about candy corn. The candy that causes a great debate each year the holiday rolls around was originally called ‘chicken feed.’ Candy corn hit the market around the 1880s, which was a time farmers made up about half of the American workforce. And, because of this most candies back then were often made to agricultural shapes, like chicken feed. It wasn’t until after World War 1 that corn was viewed as human food, and eventually called candy corn.
PAM: So, we’ve covered pretty much all of the traditions from trick-or-treating to pumpkin carving. But, there’s one tradition that happens only in Des Moines, Iowa that many of you probably haven’t heard of or done. The tradition happens every year on the evening before Halloween and It’s called Beggars’ Night. Trick or treaters head to doorsteps in costume and ready for their Halloween candy but they have to earn it by doing a trick or telling a joke.
RYAN: And, last but certainly not least, we have a Guiness World Record for the fastest time to carve a pumpkin. The record was set October 31, 2013 by Stephen Clarke on the PIX11 Morning News in New York. The Jack O’Lantern was required to have a complete face, including eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, and Clarke successfully completed the carving in exactly 16.47 seconds!
RYAN: That was 10 things You Need to Know about Halloween.
PAM: We hope you’ve enjoyed all of our Halloween madness. Ry, I think it’s time for the trick or treat off…
RYAN: Game on. Ten’ers if you wanna join, check out last Thursday’s episode, the Halloween Takeover!
PAM: I’m Pamela Kirkland.
RYAN: And I’m Ryan Willard. Thanks for listening to The Ten News.
