Skeletons in Bikinis. Halloween 2025

What did you do yesterday, October 31?

Halloween still feels foreign to me since I grew up in a different culture. This year, I wanted to learn more about its history and how people celebrate it here. Yesterday afternoon, I drove through downtown Sarasota, watching the decorations glowing under the palm trees. It looked both funny and slightly surreal. Later at home, I read more about the holiday and found a few curious facts I didn’t know before. Maybe you didn’t either, so here’s my small Halloween list:

• The word “Halloween” means “Holy Evening.”It comes from All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day.

• Fear of Halloween has a name. It’s samhainophobia.

  
  

• Halloween originated in Ireland more than 6,000 years ago. It originated from the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. People believed spirits could cross into the human world that night, so they lit bonfires to protect themselves and guide friendly souls home.

• Why Halloween became so big in the U.S.

  Halloween arrived in America with the arrival of Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 1800s. They brought their old customs of Samhain, carving lanterns, and “guising” — dressing up and visiting houses for food or coins. In the 20th century, the holiday slowly turned from a small neighborhood tradition into a national event. By the 1950s, it had become an integral part of American pop culture: schools organized costume parades, candy companies leveraged it as a marketing tool, and movies made it an iconic symbol.

• Orange and black are not random. Orange symbolizes harvest and warmth, while black represents the end of summer.

  
  

• Jack-o’-lanterns were first carved from turnips. Before pumpkins, people in Ireland and Scotland carved faces into turnips and rutabagas and placed candles inside. The legend came from a man called Stingy Jack, who tricked the devil and was doomed to wander with a glowing ember in his lantern.

  
  

• Pumpkin boats were once real. In the 1920s, American students hollowed out giant pumpkins and actually paddled them across flooded lawns after heavy rain.

  
  

• Apple-bobbing was a love game. It originated from a Roman festival dedicated to the goddess Pomona. Whoever caught the first apple in their teeth was believed to marry soon.

• Candy corn was called Chicken Feed. In the late 1800s, it was handmade and sold by the piece in small glass jars.

  
  

• The first trick-or-treaters had to perform. Children once earned candy by singing, dancing, or telling a joke at each door.

  
  

• A full moon on Halloween is a rare occurrence. It happens only every 18 to 19 years — the next one will be in 2039.

  
  

• Black cats had their own rulebook. If one crossed your path on Halloween, you were supposed to stop, face north, and silently name three witches before walking again.

  
  

• Inflatable skeletons started as a student prank. Before stores sold them, college kids painted bones on inflatable mattresses and left them in town squares at night.

• The world’s biggest pumpkin lantern display. A town in New Hampshire once lit more than thirty thousand jack-o’-lanterns in a single night.

• Halloween, Sarasota-style - Halloween is just another excuse to be creative and not take life too seriously.

Photos: iruphotos.com