HALLOWEEN IN NUMBERS
WITH Halloween just a few days away, here are a few spooky stats to get you feeling ready for October 31st.
You might have thought that witches were a thing of storybooks and horror films, but data from the most recent census reveals that 1,276 people in England and Wales practice the religion of witchcraft.
There are also 11,766 Wiccas, as well as 1,893 people who practise Satanism - the worshipping of the devil.
A further 502 people said their religion was the ‘occult’ associated with black magic and mysticism.
It is likely the figures for each ‘religion’ are higher, given that the
most recent census data is from 2011.
The origins of Halloween can be traced back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of summer and beginning of winter.
The festival was known to symbolise the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and the Celts believed that ghosts of the dead would revisit the mortal world. This is also where we get our pumpkin carving tradition from. Celts wanted to light the way to their homes for the good spirits, so carved faces into vegetables like turnips and squash and lit them with candles.
It is estimated that an impressive 15 million pumpkins are grown in the country each year, but some 18,000 tonnes of food is wasted carving them up for Halloween. According to figures from retail experts Mintel, people in the UK splashed out on more than £320 million for Halloween in 2017 - an average of just £4.80p per person.
That isn’t a patch on what Americans spend. Across the pond, consumers forked out around £7.1 billion last year - an average of around £21.90p per person.
While Halloween is clearly enjoyed up and down the UK,
few people see it as a “special occasion”.
A You Gov study from earlier this year found that 81% of people think that October 31st is celebrated more because of pressure from commercial entities.
That hasn’t stopped people believing in the supernatural, though. Around 39% of Brits say that a house can be haunted, and 34% of people admit to believing in ghosts.
Nearly one in every 10 people (9%) say they have communicated with the dead.