Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. Christmas is a very close second. I mean what other holiday can kids dress up and get candy for free?

Each year, the Mister and I would pick a horror movie to watch on Halloween night, after I've carved all my pumpkins. One year, I carved 4 large pumpkins and boy, were my fingers sore afterwards. This year, I'm only doing 1 but the Mister has agreed to carve one too. In all our years together, this will be the first pumpkin he'll be carving. There's a first for everything. Tonight, we're watching The Serpent and the Rainbow. Some of our past favorites are: The Exorcist, The Fog (original), and Halloween.

So to celebrate this wonderful holiday, here are some Halloween trivia from Wikipedia:

• The term halloween is derived from All-hallow-even (which is the eve of All Hallows' Day).
• Modern day halloween's origins is linked to the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain.
• Halloween did not become a holiday in the United States until the 19th century.
• The commercialization of Halloween in the United States did not start until the 20th century, beginning perhaps with Halloween postcards which were most popular between 1905 and 1915.
• Mass-produced Halloween costumes did not appear in stores until the 1930s, and trick-or-treating did not become a fixture of the holiday until the 1950s.
• In the United States, Halloween has become the sixth most profitable holiday.
• Celebration of Halloween in Mexico during the last 40 years have been influenced by the American traditions.

Stay safe, be scary, and have a great Halloween!

Postscript: Here's a picture of the pumpkins we carved tonight. The Mister carved the scary ghost on the left (Oogie Boogie) and I carved the one on the right (self explanatory).