Howl Much Do You Know About Halloween?

Who doesn’t love Halloween? Who doesn’t love a quiz? Who doesn’t love a Halloween quiz?

1) On October 31, 2005, in Northern Cambria, Pennsylvania, Scott Cully set what world record?

a) Carved a jack o’lantern the fastest
b) Jumped the greatest distance over a pumpkin patch
c) Grew the world’s largest pumpkin
d) Carved the largest jack o’lantern

2) Stephen King didn’t write Something Wicked This Way Comes. Who did?

a) Edgar Allen Poe
b) Mary Shelley
c) Ray Bradbury
d) Bram Stoker

3) Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of:

a) Guy Fawkes Day
b) The Day of the Dead
c) Oktoberfest
d) Samhain

4) Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger, Nightmare on Elm Street) starred in what 1977 movie with Henry Fonda and Susan Sarandon?

a) The Rocky Horror Picture Show
b) The Last of the Cowboys
c) Once Upon a Time in the West (C’era una volta il West)
d) The Satan Murders

5) It was once believed that if an unmarried girl kept a silver sixpence and a rosemary herb beneath her pillow on Halloween night, she would likely dream of what?

a) How well her garden would do through the winter
b) The way she would die
c) Her future husband
d) The spirits of dead female relatives

6) Wiccaphobia is a fear of witches and witchcraft. Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders. Bacteriophobia is a fear of bacteria. What is Selenophobia?

a) A fear of the moon
b) A fear of the dark
c) A fear of women named Selena
d) A fear of caryophyllaceous plants, usually covered with a viscid secretion by which insects are caught

7) The Irish tradition of carving a lantern is centuries old. The Irish did not use pumpkins, and instead carved the more readily available:

a) Petrified wood
b) Turnips and Potatoes
c) Mummified remains of medium-sized animals from bogs
d) Cantaloupe and Watermelon

8) Which one of these urban legends is true?

a) Razors have been found in apples.
b) Halloween is the second-biggest U.S. holiday in terms of retail sales.
c) Ohio’s famed “Chimera House” is a haunted attraction that’s so scary, no one has ever completed the tour.
d) The Blair Witch Project is based on footage shot by three student filmmakers who mysteriously disappeared while making a documentary about the legend of the Blair Witch.

9) Which of these is not a real place?

a) Transylvania, Romania
b) Black Forest, Germany
c) Skull Creek, Nebraska
d) Death Valley National Park

10) Who died on October 31st?

a) Boris Karloff
b) Bram Stoker
c) Edgar Allen Poe
d) Harry Houdini

Answers and Sorcerers (er, Sources)

1) D – Scott Cully carved the world’s largest jack o’lantern out of a pumpkin grown by Larry Checkon. It weighed 666.32 kg (1,469 lb) at the Pennsylvania Giant Pumpkin Growers Association Weigh-off.

So you know:
Stephen Clarke, of Orlando, Florida, set the world’s record for carving a jack o’lantern the fastest. He carved a face into a pumpkin in 24.03 seconds on July 23, 2006.

Joe Jutras, of North Scituate, Rhode Island, harvested the world’s largest pumpkin at 1,689 pounds (766.117 kg) on September 26, 2007.

2) C – Ray Bradbury published Something Wicked This Way Comes in 1962.

3) D – Samhain was celebrated by the Celts. They lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. They celebrated their new year on November 1.

4) B – The Last of the Cowboys was advertised as “The funniest truckin’ you’ve ever seen!” Some might know it better as The Great Smokey Roadblock.

5) C – She dreamt of her future husband. It was also believed that if a girl carrying a lamp in her hand went to a spring of water on Halloween night, she would see the reflection of her life partner in water.

Too, there was the belief that if an unmarried girl carried a broken egg in a glass and took it to a spring of water, she would be able to catch the glimpse of not just her future husband, but also her future children.

6) A – Selenophobia is a fear of the moon.

7) B – They used turnips and potatoes.

8) A – Razors have been found in apples. The other legends have been debunked.

9) Trick question: they’re all real. Feel free to treat yourself if you knew that or even thought you knew that.

10) D – Harry Houdini died October 31, 1926.