8 Halloween facts...

1. Dress up and scare off the evil spirits

You might think putting on a mask is just for the kids, but it was actually adopted by pagans in the community during Samhain to scare off evil spirits.

What started out as animal skins and heads has turned into something a little less gruesome now.

It was hoped that wandering spirits seeing people in their weird disguises would assume they were also spirits - and let them go free.

2. Jack O’Lanterns were originally made from turnips

The British tradition of carving a scary face into a vegetable was originally done with turnips.

When Irish immigrants took the idea of the Jack O’Lantern to America, they started using pumpkins, because they were cheaper than turnips.

The legend of Stingy Jack inspired the carving.

He trapped the Devil, only letting him go on the condition that Jack would never go to Hell.

However, when he died, Jack learned that Heaven was out due to his devilish dealings, so he was condemned to wander the earth as a ghost for all eternity.

Gifted Jack a lump of burning coal by the Devil, Jack carried it round in a carved-out turnip to light his way.

3. Halloween decoration or a real live body - people have made mistakes

You might think that the skeleton decorations are all a bit of fun, but in 2012, a postman thought a corpse was part of the Halloween display - but it was actually the resident of the house, who had died.

Dale Porch was coming back from working the overnight shift on November 2, when he collapsed on the porch steps.

The 46-year-old’s family was distraught and felt the postman should have done something.

4. If you bite into a Halloween cake and hit a thimble, you’ll be unlucky in love

Part of the Halloween tradition in colonial America involved the baking of a Halloween cake.

Bakers would hide various things in the cake to tell the future. A thimble was a symbol of bad luck with the ladies or gentlemen.

Also, presumably, a sign that you’ve got a costly visit to the dentist in your near future.

5. ‘Punkie Night’ - Somerset’s own deeply creepy Halloween celebration

The villages of Hinton St George and Lopen in Somerset have their very own twist on Halloween, and it’s dead creepy.

Historically, the tradition involved children marching around with jack o’lanterns - or ‘punkies’ - begging for candles and money, and threatening those who wouldn’t cough up. So far, so trickor-treat, right?

Well, what makes it extra sinister, is the fact that this band of marauding youngsters is generally led by a Punkie King and Punkie Queen - and they sing a song. The song goes: “It’s Punkie tonight

“It’s tonight

“Adam and Eve would not believe

“It’s Punkie tonight.”

6. Michael Myers’ mask in the movie Halloween was the face of William Shatner

Since the film had an incredibly low budget, the prop department on horror classic Halloween had to dress serial killer Punkie Night Night Night Michael Myers in the cheapest mask they could find in their local fancy dress shop.

Turns out that was a mask of William Shatner, which cost them the princely sum of $2.

They modified it a bit, spray painted it white and made it a bit scarier and it became one of the iconic images of horror cinema.

The cheapo slasher went on to take $70m at the worldwide box office, more than 215 times its $325,000 budget. That makes it the most profitable film ever to feature William Shatner’s face, beating Star Trek II and Miss Congeniality.

Shatner also claims to have gone trick-or-treating in the mask of his own face.

7. If you’re in Germany on Halloween, hide the knives

They celebrate Halloween in Germany, but as a time to honour and respect the dead.

One tradition is to hide all the knives in the house, for fear that returning spirits might injure themselves on any knives that are left out.

There are a number of logical problems with this tradition - not least of which is that ghosts tend to be dead already, so how much damage can a knife realistically do?

But if you start applying logic to the idea of the dead walking the Earth...

8. If you’re in Italy, you can enjoy the Beans of the Dead

In Italy they have a traditional Halloween recipe, which is kind of an oval cookie a bit like a macaron. It’s called Fave dei Morti, which roughly translates as Beans of the Dead.

Beans of the Dead sounds like the great lost George A Romero zombie movie nobody’s been waiting for.