Why do witches fly on broomsticks? Why are pumpkins associated with Halloween? And why is it acceptable on 31^st October to knock on your neighbour’s front door and demand sweets?! We answer all this and more in our Spooktacular Halloween Special!

Why do we dress up at Halloween?

Wander around any town on 31 ^st October and you’ll see dozens of little ghosts and ghouls – but did our ancestors dress up for Halloween? People believed that the spirits of the dead could visit the living on All Hallow’s Eve – and this included evil spirits and monsters. In ancient times, people would wear animal skins to fool these evil visitors, and in later years, people started dressing in spooky costumes to mock or confuse them. Fast forward several centuries and we no longer use scary costumes to protect ourselves – we wear them to scare our friends and neighbours into giving us sweets!

Speaking of which, where does Trick or Treating come from?

In the early modern period, festivals marked the times of year when the wealthier members of the community would offer food and gifts to those in need. Poor people would knock on the doors of their neighbours, often dressing up and performing songs on the doorstep, in the hope of a reward so they could join in the celebrations too. We continue this tradition by trick or treating at Halloween, and carolling at Christmas.

Wooooooooooooo! You look like you’ve seen a ghost!

If you’re really stuck for a Halloween costume, you could just cut some eye holes in a white sheet and voila – you’re a terrifying ghost. But where does the image of a ghost as a floaty white sheet come from? From the 16^th – 18^th centuries, people were usually buried wearing a white shroud – and so people believed that if a person’s spirit rose from the dead, they would still be wrapped in their burial shroud. In this period, thieves would often dress up in white shrouds to terrify their victims into handing over their possessions – an extreme form of trick or treating!

So ghosts may be obvious, but why do we associate witches with Halloween?

The image of the witch has been associated with Halloween since the 19^th century, after the so-called Witch Panic of earlier centuries had died down. By then, nobody really believed that witches were dangerous agents of the devil, and so the cartoonish figure of an old woman in a pointy hat, flying on a broomstick, became one of the defining images of Halloween. The witch’s distinctive hat comes from the traditional peasant dress of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, when the Witch Panic was at its height. And there are numerous theories as to why witches are depicted as flying on broomsticks – some believe it’s because the devil and his minions were scared of horseshoes, and so witches needed a different way to travel than on horseback! Another legend says that the devil gave his followers a special ointment that could be rubbed on household objects to make them fly. The nearest thing most peasant women had to hand? A broom!

What’s with the pumpkins?!

Long before the elaborately carved pumpkins we see today, peasants in Europe would make lanterns out of hollowed out vegetables such as turnips. But it’s thought that the tradition of carving spooky faces on these lanterns originated from the Irish folk tale of Stingy Jack. Jack had tried to trick the devil, and his spirit was cursed to wander the earth for all eternity. In Ireland, people would carve sinister faces on to turnips to frighten Jack’s spirit away – and Irish immigrants to America continued this tradition with pumpkins. Or as they’re sometimes known – ‘Jack O’Lanterns’!

Take a Halloween trip to one of these spooky cities...and solve a Mystery while you're there!