Look At This blog has a mega-post about all things Halloween. A few fun facts from the site:
Black cats were originally believed to protect witches' powers from negative forces.
A pumpkin is really a squash, and comes from the same family as the cucumber.
About 99% of pumpkins sold are used as Jack O' Lanterns at Halloween.
The biggest pumpkin in the world tipped the scales at a whopping 1,446 pounds. This gigantic gourd was weighed in October 2004 at a pumpkin festival in Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada.
The record for the fastest pumpkin carver in the world is Jerry Ayers of Baltimore, Ohio. He carved a pumpkin in just 37 seconds!
The very first jack o' lantern was made out of hollowed out turnips.
Just a question I like to ask though.
I know the first Jack O Lanterns were suppose to be made from turnips. I've never seen a turnip much larger than a baseball. Did they have bigger turnips back then. Or did they not hollow them out like we do the pumpkin? Did they just carve a face on the outside?
"To meet a witch, put your clothes on inside out and walk backwards on Halloween night."
About all this would accomplish is you tripping over some little trick or treater.
Where do they get these ideas? If I want to meet a witch all I have to do is visit someone in our local Pagan Community.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95683613