8 Surprising Halloween Facts: The Holiday’s Origins, Celebrity Deaths and Dark History
Halloween is an ancient tradition filled with fear and fun that dates back 3,000-some years, and it’s now a billion-dollar holiday with some pretty weird, eerie things attached to it. But how did it start?
Here are a few things you might not know about Halloween and its tricks and treats.
1 It’s a billion-dollar industry
America is known for its supersizing of just about everything, so it should be no surprise that we took this tradition from Europe — steeped in history and superstitions — to a whole new level. Today it is a billion-dollar industry. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent a record $13.1 billion on Halloween last year.
2 Give credit to the Celts
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We already credit the Irish Celts for St. Patrick’s Day, but we can also credit the Celts (Ireland, Great Britain and northern France) for their festival called Samhain (pronounced SAH-ween), which marked the end of the harvest and start of the dark winter ahead, for the origins of Halloween. Celts believed that the boundaries between the world of the living and the spirit world became thin, allowing ghosts of the dead and faeries to cross over into our world and roam the earth at the end of October.
To keep malicious spirits happy, they left food and gifts. They also wore disguises (often animal skins) to confuse the spirits. Predictions were also made — who you would marry, whether crops would be bountiful the following year. Even after Celts converted to Christianity, they kept their belief that spirits visit us on October 31.
3 Harry Houdini and River Phoenix died on Halloween
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He jumped off bridges while handcuffed and faced the Chinese Water Torture Cell upside down, but none of these impossible feats did him in. The master escape artist, Harry Houdini, would die from a ruptured appendix that poisoned his body on October 31, 1926. In 1993, River Phoenix, the acclaimed 23-year-old actor, collapsed outside the Viper Room nightclub and died of a drug overdose on Halloween night.
4 Virginia was the birthplace of American Halloween
While other Colonial states condemned the beliefs surrounding the day (like Salem and their witch trials), Virginia and other Southern Colonies welcomed them, believing there was a spiritual world.
5 The Halloween capital of the world is in Minnesota
The small town of Anoka, Minnesota, with a population of roughly 18,000, holds the title of being the Halloween Capital of the World. In the 1920s, when pranks, vandalism, and destruction on Halloween were out of hand, the city of Anoka set out to put an end to it — creating fun festivities to divert the anarchy and create a day and night all could enjoy. It worked!
6 Little House on the Prairie’s Michael Landon & other celebrity Halloween birthdays
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It’s starting to make sense that Bonanza star Michael Landon, who played Little Joe, was a werewolf early in his career in I Was a Teenage Werewolf, as he was born on October 31. Other celebs who share her birthdate include actors Deidre Hall, John Candy, Rob Schneider, Piper Perabo and Dermot Mulroney; Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson; rapper Vanilla Ice; journalist Jane Pauley; and explorer Christopher Columbus.
7 Devil’s Night nearly destroyed Detroit
In the 1970s and ’80s in Detroit, Michigan (along with other communities), the night before Halloween — October 30 — was labeled as Devil’s Night, where extreme pranks started to become dangerous. In 1984, the Detroit Fire Department battled more than 800 fires across the city. To curb the arson, a curfew was established for 10 pm. Eventually, volunteers began patrolling the streets, enforcing curfews and setting out to successfully end the arson.
8 Poisoned candy linked to a father
In the 1970s, rumors circulated about children dying from poisoned candy they received while trick-or-treating. Only one case was ever confirmed, and it was a boy poisoned by his own father. In 1974, Texan Ronald Clark O’Bryan laced candy with cyanide and gave it to his 8-year-old son to collect his life insurance policy.
This article appeared in the October 2026 Halloween issue of ReMIND Magazine. You can purchase the full issue at the link below.
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