Spooktacular Halloween Madrid
Some facts you didn’t know about Halloween
1. All Hallows Eve dates back to over 2000 years ago.
The roots of the Halloween culture are traced back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe, and lay in the feast of Samhain, which was annually on October 31st to honor the dead. It was celebrated as the last day of Celtic Calendar marking the end of the Celtic year and beginning of a new one
2. Halloween is more Irish than St. Patrick’s Day.
Halloween’s origins come from a Celtic festival for the dead called Samhain. Celts believed the ghosts of the dead roamed Earth on this holiday, so people would dress in costumes and leave “treats” out on their front doors to appease the roaming spirits.
3. Another name for trick-or-treating is guising.
It evolved from a Celtic tradition. They would put food and treats out for spirits they believed roamed the streets during Samhain.
4. If you’d been around for the earliest Halloween celebrations, you might have worn animal skins and heads.
The leader of the Samhain parades wore a white sheet and carried a wooden horse head or a decorated horse skull during the feast.
5. Jack-o’-lanterns were once made out of turnips, beets and potatoes — not pumpkins.
The Jack-o´-Latern comes from an old Irish tale about a man named Stingy Jack.
Stingy Jack was out getting drunk with the Devil when Jack convinced him to turn himself into a coin so he can pay for the drinks without spending money.
Jack then put the Devil, shaped like a coin, into his pocket, which also contained a silver cross that kept the Devil from transforming back.
Jack promised to free the Devil as long as the Devil wouldn’t bother him for a year, and if he died, the Devil could never claim his soul.
When Jack died, God decided he wasn’t fit for heaven, but the Devil had promised never to claim his soul for hell. So Jack was sent off to roam Earth with only a burning coal for light. He put the coal into a turnip as a lantern, and Stingy Jack became “Jack o’ Lantern.” Based on this myth, the Irish carved scary faces into turnips, beets and potatoes to scare away Stingy Jack or any other spirits of the night.
6. Halloween used to be a great day to find your soulmate.
In some parts of Ireland, people celebrated Halloween by playing romantic fortunetelling games to predict who they’d marry, and when.
Since Halloween was one of the main celebrations of the year where young people could mix with the opposite sex, it was also considered a good day to scope out a sweetheart.
7. In a few American towns, Halloween was originally referred to as “Cabbage Night.”
This came from a Scottish fortune-telling game, where girls used cabbage stumps to predict information about their future husbands. In the early Framingham, Massachusetts, teens skipped the fortune-telling and simply went around throwing cabbage at their neighbors’ houses.
8. Some animal shelters won’t allow the adoption of black cats around Halloween for fear they’ll be sacrificed.
It’s unclear whether black cats are actually sacrificed around Halloween, but various animal shelters refuse to let people adopt these cats in the whole month of October because of the superstition and the concern that the wrong people (who might harm them) might adopt them.
9. Studies have shown that Halloween actually makes kids act more evil.
Putting costume, wearing kids into groups and introducing a clear object of desire, such as candy, has been shown to lead kids to care less about the consequences of their individual actions, leading them to do things that they might not do alone.
Studies found that unsupervised costumed children in groups were far more likely to steal candy and money than both non-costumed kids and children not in a group.
Let’s celebrate this Halloween Madrid together!
Spooktacular Halloween Madrid Party
Join Spooktacular Halloween Madrid Party and maybe you will be the one who will win an amazing day trip!
This 31 of October put on your best Halloween costume and join our special Spooktacular Halloween Pub Crawl!
We will go to two different bars and one of the most spooktacular clubs in Madrid!
Pick your poison!
In the first bar you will have open bar of beer & sangria for one hour! Open bar is included in the price, so you just have to pick your poison!
No tricks, just treats!
As we said! No tricks, just treats! We prepared scary games and a lot of surprises in the halloween Madrid night, gifts and a spooktacular day trip for the winner in the halloween Madrid night.
So, prepare yourself, be creative, and put your best Halloween costume on! 🙂
Meeting point: Puerta del Sol, The Bear Statue, 22:30 hrs
Price: 20 €
For our VIP Madriders a special discount of 5 euros!
Sign up for the Spooktacular Halloween Madrid Party here!
