Here are this weekend's reading diversions for your personal enlightenment. Have a great Happy Halloween weekend!
Halloween Facts to share with the children
- Since 1995, trick or treating in the town of Sandusky, Ohio, has been against the law for anyone older then 14.
- It is very rare for a full moon to occur at the same time as Halloween. It has only occurred in - 1925, 1944, 1955, and 1974. The next time it is said to occur is 31 October, 2020.
- The word Halloween appeared in the Dictionary in the 1700s.
- According to ancient superstitions, if you stare into a mirror at midnight on Halloween, you'll see your future spouse.
- The pumpkin is one of the best sources of Vitamin A.
- Orange and black are Halloween colors because orange is associated with the Fall harvest and black is associated with darkness and death.
- Jack oā Lanterns originated in Ireland where people placed candles in hollowed-out turnips to keep away spirits and ghosts on the Samhain holiday.
- Pumpkins also come in white, blue and green. Great for unique monster carvings!
- Halloween was brought to North America by immigrants from Europe who would celebrate the harvest around a bonfire, share ghost stories, sing, dance and tell fortunes.
- Tootsie Rolls were the first wrapped penny candy in America.
- The ancient Celts thought that spirits and ghosts roamed the countryside on Halloween night. They began wearing masks and costumes to avoid being recognized as human.
- Halloween candy sales average about 2 billion dollars annually in the United States.
- Chocolate candy bars top the list as the most popular candy for trick-or-treaters with Snickers #1.
- Halloween is the 2nd most commercially successful holiday, with Christmas being the first.
- Bobbing for apples is thought to have originated from the roman harvest festival that honors Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees.
- Black cats were once believed to be witch's familiars who protected their powers.
5 Ways To Keep Your Brain Active As You Age
I had a senior moment the other day. I was talking to my daughter about my elementary school, and I started listing my teachers one by one. But when I got to fifth grade, I drew a complete blank.
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Prempro Hormone Therapy Amplifies Breast Cancer Risks, Study Finds
Women who took hormones and developed breast cancer were more likely to have cancerous lymph nodes, a sign of more advanced disease, and were more likely to die from the disease than were breast cancer patients who had never taken hormones.
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Joanna Dolgoff, M.D.: Could an Earlier Bedtime Mean a Healthier Weight for Your Kids?
Babies and children under the age of five getting less than 10 hours of sleep at night are more likely to be overweight or obese five years later. Insufficient sleep at night may be a lasting risk factor for obesity later in life (napping cannot replace the benefits of nighttime sleep).
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Dr. Michael J. Breus: Exercise: The Key to Better Sleep
If you're an insomniac, listen up: a new study from Northwestern Medicine that will be published in the journal Sleep Medicine soon showed serious promise to the dramatic effects of exercise on people diagnosed with insomnia.
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Why Canāt Middle-Aged Women Have Long Hair? - NYTimes.com
MY mother hates it. My sister worries about it. My agent thinks Iām hiding behind it. A concerned friend suggests that it undermines my professional credibility. But in the middle of my life, Iām happy with it. Which is saying a lot about anything happening to my 55-year-old body.
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Dr. Jim Taylor: Children and Responsibility: Teaching Kids the Importance of Following Through
Yet, as children are going to learn sooner or later, the real world of adulthood just doesn't work that way for us regular folk. To prepare your children for that real world, one of the great lessons they need to learn is that sometimes they just have to suck it up!
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Health Canada weighs in on table salt - Parentcentral.ca
Thereās good news and bad news when it comes to salt. Eat too much and you run the risk of heart disease. But because table salt is fortified with iodine, it helps ward off thyroid problems in adults and development delays in children.
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Brian Gresko: In Defense of Childhood: Let Kids Be Kids!
Childhood is under attack by the very people who should be protecting it: parents.
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