4. Jack o'lanterns were originally made from turnips

The British tradition of carving a scary face into a vegetable was originally done with turnips.

When Irish immigrants took the idea of the jack o'lantern to America, they started using pumpkins, because they were cheaper than turnips.

Not to mention making nicer soup. And lattes.

But we think you'll agree, turnips are way, way scarier.

5. If you're in Germany on Halloween, hide the knives

They celebrate Halloween in Germany, but as a time to honour and respect the dead.

One tradition is to hide all the knives in the house, for fear that returning spirits might injure themselves on any knives that are left out.

There are a number of logical problems with this tradition - not least of which is that ghosts tend to be dead already, so how much damage can a knife realistically do? But if you start applying logic to the idea of the dead walking the Earth...

6. If you're in Italy, you can enjoy the Beans of the Dead

In Italy they have a traditional Halloween recipe, which is kind of an oval cookie a bit like a macaron. It's called Fave dei Morti, which roughly translates as Beans of the Dead.

Beans of the Dead sounds like the great lost George A Romero zombie movie nobody's been waiting for.

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