Community Corner

Scary Statistics: Halloween Fun Facts

Here's a roundup of trivia about the haunted holiday.

Halloween, which dates back to Celtic rituals thousands of years ago, is celebrated today by wearing costumes, trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins, and going to haunted houses and parties.

Here are some frighteningly fun facts and figures about the pagan tradition turned modern celebration:

  • Jack-o'-lanterns come from the Irish tradition of carving out potatoes and turnips.
  • The value of pumpkins harvested from the top six pumpkin-producing states—Illinois, California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan—was $113 million in 2011.
  • There were 41 million trick-or-treaters across America last Halloween.
  • Some places around the country that may put you in the Halloween mood are:
    • Devils Elbow, CA (population unknown)
    • Tombstone, AZ (population 1,396) 
    • Transylvania, LA (population 743) 
    • Pumpkin Center, NC (population 2,222) 
    • Hell, MI (population 266)
    • Skull Creek, NE (population 268) 
  • Consumers will spend an estimated $2.4 billion on candy for Halloween this year, the most popular holiday for candy sales.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, SpecialityFood.com

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