Famous Frights
This friendly ghost is known for being “the friendliest ghost you know.”
Who is Casper? According to the film, Casper was a twelve-year-old boy living in Whipstaff Manor with his inventor father J.T. McFadden until he died from pneumonia after playing out in the cold until it was past nightfall.
In folklore, this metal is known to be harmful for werewolves.
What is Silver? Silver is associated with the moon in most alchemy texts . It's believed that as such, since many Werewolves are empowered by the full moon, that silver is able to disrupt that and harm them
This chewy candy says it’s “the great American lollipop.”
What is a Tootsie Pop?
This popular Halloween movie features three Sanderson sisters brough back to life in Salem.
What is Hocus Pocus?
The origins of this common tradition began in medieval England and Ireland, where children would go “souling” on All Hallows' Eve.
What is Trick-or-Treating? "Souling" was when wealthy noblemen would give out "soul cakes" to peasants in exchange for prayers for their families' souls.
A flock of this bird is referred to as a "murder"?
What is a crow? Their black feathers, harsh calls and intelligence made them both respected and feared. In folklore, crows were even said to hold courts to judge wrongdoers, and their presence was seen as an omen of death.
Bela Lugosi became famous for playing this blood-sucking count in 1931.
Who is Dracula? As was apparently common among Victorian gothic fiction, Dracula supposedly came from a nightmare ... one possibly caused by bad seafood. According to biographer Harry Ludlam, Stoker said he was compelled to pen the tale after dreaming of “a vampire king rising from the tomb”—following a "helping of dressed crab at supper.”
This 1980s music video made zombies trendy again.
What is Thriller? The “Thriller” music video had a budget of $500,000, which was an enormous amount for a music video at the time. When the budget was overextended, MTV and Showtime helped finance it, in exchange for the documentary “The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller.”
The two "M"s in M&M'S stands for this.
What is Mars & Murrie? Those are the surnames of the two businessmen—Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie—who developed and financed the candy-coated chocolates.
The Wicked Witch of the West tried to steal these from Dorothy.
What are ruby slippers?
The tradition of wearing costumes originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (saa·wn), and was believed to serve this purpose.
What is to ward off ghosts? It was believed that on Halloween, ghosts came back to Earth and would haunt anyone who left their homes. So they wore masks in hopes that the ghosts would mistake them for other spirits.
Breaking one of these is said to bring 7 years of bad luck.
What is a mirror? The Greeks believed that one’s reflection on the surface of a pool of water revealed one’s soul. But it was Roman artisans who actually learned to manufacture mirrors from polished metal surfaces, and believed their gods observed souls through these devices. To damage a mirror was considered so disrespectful that people thought it compelled the gods to rain bad luck on anyone so careless. Around the third century mirrors were being made from glass, and breakage became a lot more commonplace. But the Romans did not believe that the ensuing bad luck would last forever. They believed that the body renewed itself every seven years.
The Addams Family’s butler was named this.
Who is Lurch? Prior to the television series, which made its debut on small screens in 1964, the cartoonist and creater of The Addams Family, Charles Addams had not bestowed names upon the characters featured in his one-panel cartoons. It was only when the 1964 show received the green light that Addams, in collaboration with producers, devised monikers for the peculiar clan. Here's a fascinating tidbit: Wednesday's middle name is actually Friday!
In Greek mythology, the story of Lycaon serves as one of the earliest examples of this kind of monster.
What is a werewolf?
The most popular Halloween candy in America is this.
What are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?
The role of Winifred Sanderson in the movie Hocus Pocus was played by this actress.
Who is Bette Midler?
This famous magician died on Halloween day.
Who is Harry Houdini? Master escape artist Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926 from a ruptured appendix. But details of his demise remain mysterious to this day.
Hanging one of these gragrant herbs above your door is said to wards off evil spirits.
What is garlic?
This 1960 Hitchcock film made everyone afraid of showers.
What is Psycho? As with subsequent horror films The Silence Of The Lambs (1991), Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (1990), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and many others, Robert Bloch’s original novel of Psycho (published in 1959) was based on the real life serial killer and grave robber, Ed Gein. The infatuation with his mother and obsessive interest in taxidermy are elements taken directly from the actual Gein.
According to legend, this three-headed monster was said to guard the entrance to Hades.
What is Cerberus? Cerberus's job is to ensure that no mortals get into the Underworld and that anyone who is in Hades is never able to get out. Accounts describe him as being flesh-eating. In addition to three heads, the stories also depict Cerberus as having numerous snakes or dragons on his back.
This popular candy's slogan is "Taste the Rainbow".
What is Skittles?
This TV witch twitched her nose to make magic happen.
Who is Samantha from Bewitched?
This First Lady famously decorated the White House for Halloween in 1958.
Who is Mamie Eisenhower? First Lady Mamie Eisenhower publicly decorated the White House for Halloween for the first time in 1958 when she hosted a lunch for the wives of staff members in the State Dining Room. Decorations included skeletons hanging from the wall lights, yellow jack-o’-lanterns and shocks of dried corn in the corners of the room.
It is bad luck to cross paths with this creature.
What is a black cat? The evolution of black cats being “familiars” with witches was rooted in the belief that witches were able to use cats for spying and other dark magic. Believing that witches could take the form of their black cat companions, the superstition that a black cat crossing your path was bad luck materialized.
Boris Karloff played this green-skinned creature created by a scientist.
Who is Frankenstein’s Monster? Boris Karloff is recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema, and the actor most closely identified with the general public's image of the Frankenstein Monster from the classic 1818.
This halloween song begins with a witch’s cackle and creaking doors.
What is “Monster Mash”? The song was partially inspired by the Mashed Potato dance craze of the era. A variation on the Mashed Potato was danced to "Monster Mash," in which the footwork was the same, but Frankenstein-style monster gestures were made with the arms and hands.
This popular carnival treat/candy was invented in 1897 by a dentist.
What is Cotton Candy? Surprisingly, the inventor of cotton candy was actually a dentist! In 1897 William Morrison teamed up with Tennessee candy maker, John Wharton, to create the concoction. The duo premiered cotton candy in 1908 at the World's Fair.
The Salem Witch Trials took place in this year.
What is 1692? When one thinks of the Salem witch trials, it is easy to imagine that the witches were all burned at the stake. This is actually a trope from the European witch trials. Being burned at the stake was an age-old punishment reserved for heretics. When it was all over, 141 suspects, both men and women, were tried as witches. Nineteen were executed by hanging. One was pressed to death by heavy stones.
This ship, often called the 'Queen of the Ocean,' is said to be haunted and is permanently docked in Long Beach, California.
What is RMS Queen Mary? It is believed that up to 150 ghosts haunt the spooky ship, and several of the spirits have been identified.
This famous psychic tool lets people “communicate” with spirits.
What is a Ouija Board? The board that became Ouija was born in 1886 in Chestertown, Maryland and named in 1890 in Baltimore where it was first manufactured. Since Ouija's inception newspapers reported on its use as a way to communicate with the dead, predict catastrophes, solve mysteries, even commit crimes. The board was given it's name from a word spelled out on the board when medium Helen Peters Nosworthy asked the board to name itself. When she asked what the word meant, the answer she found was "Good Luck".
This is the English Romantic novelist best known as the author of Frankenstein (1818).
Who is Mary Shelley? Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1816 when she was 18 years old. It was published two years later.
This famous monster has an NHL team named after it.
What is a Jersey Devil? The NHL's New Jersey Devils are named after the Jersey Devil, a legendary creature who has reportedly been sighted by numerous New Jersey residents for almost three centuries, but whose description has changed dramatically over the years. Originally described as a demonic child with hooves, bat wings, a forked tail, and the head of a horse, the creature has since been described as a flying lion, a green alien-like monster, and a faceless hairy creature. Some believe the Jersey Devil is a myth, while others believe it to be something supernatural. Still others believe the creature to be some sort of alien or a survivor of the Jurassic period.
This classic fall sweet was once known as "Chicken Feed".
What is candy corn? This tri-colored sweet was created in the late 1800s and was originally called “Chicken Feed” as corn was primarily fed to chickens and pigs before World War I. It was not until the 1950s when candy began to play a larger role in celebrating Halloween that candy corn was advertised as a Halloween candy.
According to legend, a witch’s cat is called this.
What is a familiar? In Western demonology, a familiar is a small animal kept as a witch's attendant.
Before pumpkins, people in Ireland carved this vegetable for lanterns.
What is a turnip? In Ireland, people started to carve demonic faces out of turnips to frighten away malevolent spirits. When Irish immigrants moved to the U.S., they began carving jack-o'-lanterns from pumpkins, as these were native to the region.
This is the first line of the song "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder.
What is "Very superstitious writings on the wall"? The song was released on October 24, 1972, as the lead single from his fifteenth studio album, Talking Book (1972)