Happy Halloween

Since ghosts inhabit my Pepper Martin mystery series and Halloween is my favorite day of the year, it only seems fitting to run a quiz all about the holiday! Try your luck and see how much you know about October 31.

1. Is a pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?

a) fruit
b) vegetable
c) Can I saw “all of the above?”
d) Got me!

2. Halloween originated from a pagan Celtic holiday. What was the name of it?

a) Uh…Halloween?
b) Samhain
c) End of Summer
d) I know nothing about pagan Celts, just hand over the Peeps!

3. When the Romans took over Britain, they transformed Samhain into a holiday honoring Pomona, the goddess of fruits and gardens. They considered one fruit sacred, and these days, the tradition of honoring her has been transformed into one bobbing for this item. What is it?

a) Pumpkins might be fruits, right? How about pumpkins?
b) Apples
c) In the Charlie Brown Halloween special, it was Snoopy!
d) Peeps

4. With the rise of Christianity, the holiday was changed again to honor the Eve of the next day, a Holy Day. That day is called

a) All Saints Day
b) All Souls Day
c) I Ate Too Many Peeps and My Stomach Hurts Day
d) Let’s Dig out the Snickers We Held Back from the Kids Day

5. What percentage of Americans say they decorate for Halloween?

a) 86%
b) 99%
c) 15%
d) What? You mean not everyone has a Halloween shower curtain?

6. What percentage of pumpkins grown in the US are used for jack-o-lanterns?
a) 86%
b) 99%
c) 15%
d) All the ones that don’t get smashed

7. The first official Halloween observance in the US was in 1921 in

a) Hey, Cleveland rocks! It must have been Cleveland
b) New Orleans
c) Anoka, Minnesota
d) New York City

8. Jack-o-lanterns were originally used because people thought their light would frighten away ghosts. The first jack-o-lanterns were carved from

a) Duh! Pumpkins
b) Turnips
c) Marble
d) Peeps. Big Peeps

9. Which company runs a “Flavor Graveyard” on its website?

a) Peeps
b) M&Ms
c) Ben & Jerry’s
d) Jello

10. What is Casey Daniels’ favorite holiday?

a) Her birthday
b) Christmas
c) St. Patrick’s Day
d) Halloween

Answers

1. A. Pumpkins are fruits. They are members of the gourd family which includes cucumbers, squash and melons

2. B. Samhain. To the Celts, the word means, “End of Summer.” They believed that on Samhain, the veils was thinnest between the world of the living and that of the dead.

3. B. Apples. Even though Lucy did lock lips with Snoopy when she bobbed!

4. A. All Saints Day. That’s how the name “Halloween” came about. The next day is “all hallows,” = all that is holy = all saints. So the night before is Hallows Eve.

5. A. 86%

6. B. 99%

7. Anoka, Minnesota. That had to be the right answer, I couldn’t have made that one up!

8. B. Turnips. Leave it to the Irish!

9. C. Ben & Jerry’s. If you haven’t been there, check it out. Very cute.

10. That’s an easy one. Pass the Peeps!

This Saturday–Halloween–I’ll be signing books at 1 o’clock at the Waldenbooks at Great Northern Mall, North Olmsted, Ohio.

8 Responses to “Happy Halloween”

1. Cute quiz, Casey!

   But nobody does Halloween better than the Mexicans. All right, so they call it the Days of the Dead.

   I grew up in Mexico, liiving there from age 7 to 14. I have fond memories of the decorated sugar skulls and all the little dancing skeletons that were everywhere at the end of October.

   But sadly, no chocolate candy. At least, no milk chocolate, which is what we’re used to in the States.
   Anyway, happy dia de los muertos!

   Saralee

   by Saralee on October 28th, 2009 at 11:08 am
   
   

2. Gads….I got four wrong.
   What that all about? …. Not a peep out of you!

   Zz

   by Zorro on October 28th, 2009 at 11:12 am
   
   

3. I didn’t know that about you, Saralee. Fascinating! Do you speak Spanish? And do you celebrate Dia De los Muertos? If so, what are the traditions?

   by Casey on October 28th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
   
   

4. I even knew the Anoka answer (Pumpkin Capital of the United States is their motto). I was told as a child I was a “good witch” (one who can not do harm) because I have shortened little fingers and had certain “birth events” which meant I was a witch. Thought my family crazy until I had two other people tell me the same thing. Cue spooky music.

   by Kelly on October 28th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
   
   

5. Hi, Zorro,

   Like most kids who learn a language when they’re young, I was quite fluent when we lived in Mexico! My little classmates and I sometimes wondered why adults (like our parents) seemed to have a hard time with it, and had such terrible accents.

   My Spanish is rusty now. I can read and listen better than I can speak or write it.

   Actually, I don’t celebrate Dia de los Muertos, but it’s a cool tradition. People would buy the decorations–the sugar skulls and the figurines, tissue paper cut-outs and so on–and have a dinner party. Then it was time to go to church (evening service). The next day was for visiting the cemetery to lay flowers on graves.

   Some people would even set up a little altar to the deceased members of their family, usually with decorations and mementoes from the loved one’s life. It was meant to comfort the living, mostly.

   Saralee

   by Saralee on October 28th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
   
   

6. Oh, My God, Casey, did you Zman do all that research on your own? GET A LIFE!
   (I’m sorry, I forgot that Zorro is your husband.) Anyway, Happy Halloween to the two of you!
   DB

   by Administrator on October 29th, 2009 at 10:19 am
   
   

7. When I was a kid, I though Halloween was started by dead people, but my Dad always told me(and anyone else who would listen) that it was the candy companies who actually started it!

   by Ed Kelemen on October 30th, 2009 at 8:08 am
   
   

8. Ed, I love the idea of the dead feeling left out and starting their own party. There may be a short story in there somewhere!

   And Don . . . you know better than that! I never let Zorro do the research. He’s always too busy saving all those peasants!

   by Casey on October 30th, 2009 at 8:25 am