Halloween is based on an ancient Celtic festival called Sow Wayne. It seems to have come to the United States in the middle of the 19th century. W. Scott Poole, our historian of horror, explains why we even do Halloween.
This year’s fear of rainbow fentanyl in kids’ trick-or-treat bags is just the latest unfounded Halloween candy freakout. But the yearly panic has its roots in a very real crisis: the 1982 Tylenol murders.
This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard with help from Jillian Weinberger, engineered by Efim Shapiro, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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