Halloween History & Traditions
This Mexican holiday, celebrated on November 1 and 2, honors deceased loved ones with altars and offerings.
What is Día de los Muertos?
This 1978 John Carpenter film introduced audiences to the masked killer Michael Myers.
What is Halloween?
According to folklore, witches often travel through the night on this household cleaning tool.
What is a broom?
This blood-drinking count was created by author Bram Stoker in an 1897 novel.
Who is Count Dracula?
This infamous London killer terrorized the Whitechapel district in 1888, and his identity remains unknown.
Who is Jack the Ripper?
Before pumpkins became popular in America, people in Ireland and Scotland often carved this root vegetable into lanterns.
What is a turnip?
In Hocus Pocus, these three witch sisters are accidentally resurrected in Salem.
Who are the Sanderson sisters?
According to superstition, breaking one of these household objects brings seven years of bad luck.
What is a mirror?
This legendary creature is said to turn to stone anyone who looks directly into its eyes.
Who is Medusa?
This notorious Chicago gangster, nicknamed “Scarface,” was convicted of tax evasion in 1931 and died in Florida in 1947.
Who is Al Capone?
In the Christian calendar, Halloween falls on the evening before this November 1 observance.
What is All Saints’ Day?
This 1996 horror film features a masked killer who calls victims and asks, “What’s your favorite scary movie?”
What is Scream?
This magical object is traditionally used by fortune-tellers to glimpse the future.
What is a crystal ball?
This author wrote a famous novel in which Victor Frankenstein brings an artificially created human to life.
Who is Mary Shelley?
This famous escape artist died in Detroit on Halloween in 1926, following complications from a ruptured appendix.
Who is Harry Houdini?
Halloween traces some of its origins to this ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest season.
What is Samhain?
In The Silence of the Lambs, this FBI trainee seeks the help of Dr. Hannibal Lecter to catch another serial killer.
Who is Clarice Starling?
In folklore, this herb is traditionally associated with warding off evil and is also used in cooking.
What is sage?
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, a doctor’s experiments unleash his darker alter ego, named this.
Who is Mr. Hyde?
In 1892, this Massachusetts woman became the central figure in a notorious double-murder case involving her father and stepmother.
Who is Lizzie Borden?
This Irish legend is associated with the origin of the jack-o’-lantern, a name given to a wandering spirit.
Who is Stingy Jack?
In The Shining, Jack Torrance takes a job as winter caretaker of this isolated Colorado hotel.
What is the Overlook Hotel?
This three-letter symbol, often associated with witchcraft, consists of a star enclosed in a circle.
What is a pentagram?
This 1820 short story features a superstitious schoolteacher named Ichabod Crane and a mysterious rider said to haunt a New York village.
What is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?
This actress, found dead in Los Angeles in 1947, became known as the “Black Dahlia” in one of Hollywood’s most infamous unsolved murder cases.
Who is Elizabeth Short?