Why We Do What We Do - 13 Halloween Superstitions

LiveScience.com lists the top 13 Halloween superstitions and explains how they came about. With Holloween festivities set to peak tomorrow, Oct. 31, now is a good time to review the mystery that surrounds the occasion.

13 - The Black Cat

The black cat has long been a symbol of Halloween, but for all the wrong reasons. Of course the bad luck that comes from a black cat's path is just superstition. Yet, just as sure as someone will run their hand through a clover patch on St. Patrick's Day, some people will cross a busy street to avoid a black cat's trail. Unfortunately the one most likely to experience bad luck is the black cat itself. The superstition has made it such that black cats are the least adopted out, but that is luck that can be changed. The Gwinnett Animal Shelter offers a discount every Friday to anyone who specifically adopts a black cat. 

12 - Jack-O-Lanterns

Here the folklore is that a drunken farmer named Jack tricked the devil, resulting in him being denied the gates of Heaven or Hell when he died. The lantern was to guide his lost soul.

11 - Bats

Medieval folklore associates bats with witches. One myth reportedly puts bats as a symbol someone in a house will die and another that the house is haunted.

10 - Spiders

As with bats and black cats in folklore, these were considered the pets of witches. Another superstition, reports Livescience.com, is that a spider spotted on Halloween is the deceased spirit of a loved one watching over you.

9 - Witches

The typical haggard, pointy chin, ugly witch in a black hat is more of a modern day symbol. The medieval witch was really a pagan goddess who symbolized wisdom and the changing of the season.

8 - Cauldrons

The pagan Celts believed all souls went into the crone's cauldron, which is symbolic of Earth mother's womb. That is where the souls awaited reincarnation. This is symbolize by the ominous bubbling brew in the cauldron.

7 - Witch's Broomstick

This appears to have originated from the elderly, poor woman who were accused of witchcraft. Since they could not afford horses, they used the brooms as walking sticks. The story of how they flew is rooted in hallucinogenic confusion, which gave them the feeling they were flying. 

6 - Trick or Treating

There are a couple of different ones here, one being that visiting ghosts would disguise themselves at humans and ask for food. If you turned them away, you risked incurring their wrath. Another was that dressing up as a ghoul would fool the spirits into thinking you were one of them and they would therefore not take your soul.

5 - Halloween Colors

The traditional black and gold of Halloween is from the pagan celebration of autumn. The orange color of the autumn crops and black symbolizing the death of summer.

4 - Mischief Night

The mischief of Halloween or Devil's Night as it is sometimes known comes from bonfires, games and pranks practiced by the ancient Celts. It did, however, become more rowdy by the 1920s and 1930s, hence a rejuvenation of trick or treating, more as a distraction. This helped Oct. 31, but sometimes acts of vandalism are now committed on Oct. 30 instead.

3 - Candy Apples

Adapted by the trick-or-treating traditions of something sweet, the ancient connection goes back to Pamona, the goddess of fruit tries - another celebration of the harvest.

2 - Bobbing for Apples

The ancient connection here, according to LiveScience.com, is that the apple was seen as a sacred fruit, capable of predicting the future. Bobbing for apples was actually a form of fortune telling. A myth was that if a girl put an apple she retrieved from the bobbing bucket under her pillow, she would dream of her future husband.

1 - Candy Corn

This is a more recent tradition. The yellow, orange and white candy is meant to resemble a corn kernel, presumably again a reference to the harvest.

These are brief summaries of the traditions and superstitions of Halloween. For more complete details on each, go to LiveScience.com.