Before Pumpkins: The Real History of Halloween

Before pumpkins, there were turnips, and the dead came home. This is the real history of Halloween: Samhain and the returning dead, All Hallows' Eve, Stingy Jack and the first jack-o'-lanterns, deadly fortune games, the prank years, the night the Martians came, wartime sugar rationing and the poisoned-candy scare. It ends here in La Porte, Indiana, where even Belle Gunness became part of Halloween. A La Porte Weather Now documentary. Narrated by a computer voice. Every picture in it was drawn for this film. Chapters 0:00 Before pumpkins 0:53 Samhain 2:34 All Hallows' Eve 3:31 Souls, guisers and Stingy Jack 4:59 Fortunes and omens 6:37 Crossing the ocean 7:26 The prank years 8:38 The night the Martians came 9:28 War, sugar and the candy boom 10:39 Poison in the candy bag 11:52 Halloween today 12:35 La Porte's Halloween 13:40 Happy Halloween Watch next: our Belle Gunness series and our La Porte County hauntings documentary. Trick-or-treat hours for every La Porte County town: https://laporteweathernow.com Sources: Wikipedia (Samhain; All Saints' Day; Halloween; poisoned candy myths), Britannica, Mental Floss, The Irish Post, Smithsonian Magazine, CBC News, History.com, NPR, Interesting Literature, the National Retail Federation and Crime Library. #Halloween #HalloweenHistory #LaPorte