The know-it-alls of Halloween

On this costume-filled, candy-gorging holiday, chances are there are a few things you didn't know, so read on and enlighten yourself with some Halloween trivia.

When it comes to candy sales, Halloween makes stores shriek with glee, as Oct. 31 is a retailer's top holiday. According to the National Confectioners Association, giving and eating candy during major holidays accounts for about a third of all confections sold annually.

Holidays or not, candy is keeping retailers and dentists happy. Do you want to know just how happy? Here is some Halloween triva:

In 2002, each of us consumed 24 pounds of candy.

Census researchers report that 1,040 manufacturers in 2001 produced $12 billion worth of chocolate and cocoa.

Another 616 places made non-chocolate candy that year.

Candy corn is a big portion of those treats made annually. In fact, Oct. 30 is National Candy Corn Day.

There are 106 million potential houses for the kids to go trick-or-treating to.

Older kids prefer chocolate more so than younger ones.

The first milk chocolate was created in Switzerland in the 1800s.

The melting point of cocoa butter is below the body temperature, explaining why it melts in your mouth.

A 1.5-ounce chocolate bar has 15 percent of the daily value for riboflavin.

According to Bankrate, you should gauge your candy needs by counting the number of five to 14-year-olds in your neighborhood. The article says you should also get some things for the older kids.

Halloween, Christmas, Easter and Valentine's Day are the biggest candy seller days of the year.

Pop rocks were introduced by General Foods in 1974.

The first jack-o-lanterns were made of turnips.

Pumpkins can come in white, blue and green also.

Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables despite what you might think, and 99 percent of pumpkins sold in the U.S. are used to make jack-o-lanterns.

Trick-or-treating is an Irish tradition where the wealthy would give food to the poor on Halloween night.

Costume sales are estimated at $1.5 billion and Americans spend about $50 million on Halloween greetings.

In the north of England, Halloween was called "nut-crack" and "snap-apple night."

This story was produced by Happynews Citizen Journalist, Terri Rimmer.

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