Interesting Halloween Facts & 4 Ideas for The Creepy Holiday

Here came autumn with its colorful leaf carpets, fresh-air park walks and the cozy time with hot drinks back home. Families are all anticipating the upcoming series of winter holidays, while we, at iCard, are getting ready with a whole bunch of new surprises and features. Here is the first one: You can fund your wallet with a stored card for FREE for 72 hours – from 00:00 on the 30th of October until 23:59 on the 1st of November. 

Halloween is nearing and we can all feel a sense of anticipation residing within young and old. Each year, the holiday is celebrated on the evening of October 31st. The occasion usually brings the most joy to the children, who usually dress up in creepy and monstrous costumes, visit neighbours’ homes and usually collect a ton of sweets. The reason lies within a very simple question that the groups of youngsters usually shout at the adult who opens the door: Trick or treat? Trick or treat? To pay for their “safety” and prevent their house being destroyed by the “monsters”, homeowners usually choose to treat them with some sweets. That’s usually enough to keep the house safe for the next year.

The beginning of this holiday is attributed to the Celtic New Year – a time for transition between summer and winter, between light and darkness, warmth and cold, life and death. 

This attempt for a beautiful explanation of nature’s processes receives a lot of interpretations from both the Romans and the early Christians, who entangle it into their All-saints day, on the 1st of November. Together with Christmas and Easter, Halloween is one of the holidays which has embedded many colourful ideas of different origin.

Halloween is celebrated by different people around the world, not just Catholics. The holiday found its way into the USA during the 19th century and by now it’s a national holiday. The largest Halloween parade takes place in Manhattan and it’s an awesome spectacle of colours. Last year, as usual, it brought out tens of thousands of monsters in plain sight: 

Here are 2 interesting facts about the American Halloween: 

1. The world record for the most lit-up pumpkin lanterns was set in Boston – over 30,000;
2. The largest pumpkin lantern ever was carved out of a 666 kilogram pumpkin, grown in Pennsylvania. 

At iCard, we always aim to build upon precious moments and spread good mood. This is why we offer you 72 hours of free wallet funding with a stored card. In addition, we prepared a list of ideas that will help you organize an unforgettable Halloween.

1.  Prepare or order an original costume and makeup

Devil with horns, good ghost, chattery skeleton, evil pirate or a pointed-hat witch … let’s all laugh in the face of fear. Creepy masks, stage performances and the unusual characters always manage to grab a hold of children’s attention. This is why Halloween is so much fun. The sweets involved in this holiday also give it some extra leverage.

Dressing up (or down in the case of Halloween) is not just typical for the children. More often than not, adults also get creative when preparing for the holiday. Some resemble famous (or notorious) characters while others prefer to become comics heroes, at least for 1 day. This is the only day of the year when you can discuss global warming with Yeti or complain to Copernicus that a lot of people still believe the Earth is flat …

Did you already selected your costume, or the makeup, but haven’t ordered them? There are numerous websites that can solve your problem. If you pay online, don’t forget to protect your primary payment information! How? By using one of the virtual debit cards in iCard digital wallet. You can freeze the card after a single use and unfreeze it the next time you need it.

2.  Make a pumpkin lantern

It’s also known as Jack O’Lantern and was the original idea of an Irish farmer whose prime goal was to scare away the evil spirits. In the early days, Halloween lanterns were carved out of turnips or beets and were later completely replaced by the pumpkins, which are nowadays the prime symbol of the holiday.

You can easily buy all sorts of pumpkin lanterns. You can find beautifully carved or painted small pumpkins, or ready-made Jacks. There are also alternatives – plastic, metal or even paper-made pumpkins. If you are about to buy a lantern for this upcoming holiday, keep in mind that it’s always easier to pay contactless – with a phone, with iCard Visa or with an NFC wearable. Simply choose your preferred payment method and don’t forget to take advantage of the 72 hours of free funding with a stored card from October 30 till November 1. 

All you need to make your own lantern, that resembles the fellow from the picture above, is a pumpkin, sharp knife, a spoon and imagination. First, pop the top open then carve out the contents with all the seeds. How it looks is up to you. All you need to focus on is making it resemble a face with emotions – happiness, laughter, curiosity or fear. Set your inner artist free! 

If you are far from your friends, you can make a photo of your creation and send it as a Halloween gift directly from iCard. You can use the picture on a custom designed GiftCard.

3.  Stock-up lots of candies and sweets to treat the little monsters that will bang on your door very soon

Pumpkin pie, chocolate candies in the shape of eyes or skulls, biscuits with bats decoration, colorful lollipops, gummy candies, cupcakes with sugar bones tucked into the orange creme … Halloween sweets can be different kinds, beautiful and sweet. If you have free time and you are naturally drawn to the kitchen, then it’s the perfect time to put on your apron for a few hours and experiment. 

If you like eating sweets more than preparing them, it’s likely you will turn to a professional wizard chef. You take spontaneous decisions and you want freshly made sweets? Maybe you want to buy them at the last moment, just like most people do. To make it as quick and effortless as possible, you can always rely on your Android phone – to “Tap & Pay” with iCard.

4.  Make some sweet alcohol cocktails for the grown-ups

Where can you see Spiderman, Fred Flintstone, a nurse, a moose, Daenerys Targaryen, a NASA astronaut, Einstein, a speaking potato and Cleopatra together drinking and having fun? At the Halloween party of course, because it’s not only for children. Don’t get surprised if you are offered “Spooky graveyard”, “Pumpkin martini”, “Poison appletini”, “Witch martini”, “Black widow hit”, “Blood orange sangria”, “Cherry-red magic” and a whole spectrum of “Bloody Merries”. 

Internet is full of spooky cocktail recipes. Set you imagination free, not just in how you mix the ingredients, but also in serving the booze. You can find skull- or pumpkin-shaped cups, as well as utensils, decorated with spider nets and etc.

If you don’t have enough time to organize a Halloween party, take all you friends and head to a bar. Don’t forget that you can use iCard’s free and instant transfers to split the bill at the end of the night. If your friends still don’t have iCard, you can simply invite them from “Menu > Invite friends”.

When heading out to feast, don’t forget to have your digital wallet funded and ready for the fun times. You can use a stored debit or credit card for the promotional no-fee funding from Oct 30 till Nov 1. All you need is a Standard iCard account which you can unlock by going through our video identification process.

Here is how funding works with an already-stored bank card: 

1. Open iCard;
2. Go to the “Events” tab;
3. Tap the blue button in the lower right corner of your screen;
4. Select “Add money”;
5. Select “Credit/Debit card”;
6. Enter the amount you want to fund and tap “Next”;
7. Confirm the transaction.

Do you have different ideas for Halloween? Have you gone with some of our ideas? Let us know in the comments below!

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