If you’re trying to contact the dead, try scrying.
Bobbing for apples is a relic of the “Druidic Ordeal by Water,” signifying the passage of the soul to the hereafter.
Although the origin of candy corn is unknown, in the 1880s, the Wunderle Candy Company of Philadelphia became the first confectioner to mass produce it. The Goelitz Confectionery Company of Cincinnati is the oldest company still in existence to produce it – it began doing so in 1898.
The word hobgoblin is a combination of hob and goblin, two names for impish sprites. In the preface to The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote, “Orc is not an English word. It occurs in one or two places but is usually translated goblin (or hobgoblin for the larger kinds).”
What do Kinky Friedman, Jane Pauley, Dan Rather, and David Ogden Stiers have in common (other than all being celebrities)? They were all born on Oct. 31.
This article appears in November 1 • 2002.