Oct. 26, 2022
Do you know about Halloween & trick-or-treating? 🕷️
Did you know? In this episode we are going to talk a bit more about Halloween. What is your favorite part of Halloween? We are going to look at trick or treating and some of the changes that have happened over the years. We will also talk about bats, owls, and spiders and why they are thought about around Halloween.
Sleep Tight!, Sheryl & Clark
❤️👂🔬
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About Sleep Tight Science
Sleep Tight Science is an engaging bedtime show for the whole family that answers the questions kids have about science. Have an interesting science topic you would like featured? Send us an email at hello@sleeptightscience.com and we may feature it in an upcoming show.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker 1: You're listening to sleep Tight Science. Did you know the world record for the heaviest pumpkin is for a pumpkin that weighed two thousand, six hundred and twenty four point six pounds. What Hello, friends, and welcome back to sleep Tight Science, a bedtime show that answers the questions you have about science. In this episode, we are going to learn a little bit more about Halloween. It is pseudo scientific. Are you ready for Halloween? What is your favorite part of Halloween? Do you enjoy the trick or treating? In this episode, we are going to find out a little bit about the history of trick or treating. Can you imagine not being able to trick or treat because there was not enough sugar? That really happened? What animals do you think of when you think of Halloween. We are going to look at spiders, bats, and owls and see why they are often lumped in with all things Halloween. With Halloween being in the fall, there is a lot of movement with spiders, bats, and owls, So that might be one reason why we hear or think so much about this close to Halloween. The changing temperatures and food becoming harder defined is another reason why these creatures seem to be around more in the fall. Before we get started on our topic, let's look at a couple of questions sent in by our listeners. How does the world make rocks and why are they so hard? This question comes from Mattie in Germany. That's a bit of a tricky question, Mattie, because there are three main types of rocks, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, and each kind is formed differently. Igneous rocks are formed when melted rock cools into a solid. This can happen underground or above the ground. Sedimentary rocks can take millions of years to form. When soil and surface materials erode or where away, they leave layers of sediments. Over long periods of time, layer upon layer of sediments form, and this puts enormous pressure on the oldest layers. Under this great pressure and heat, lower layers of sediments will eventually turn into rocks. Metamorphic rocks are rocks that have gone through some kind of change. Metamorphic rocks may start out as igneous, sedimentary, or even another type of rock. Changes in these rocks are prompted either by bumps that occur at the dividing lines of colliding tectonic plates, or intense heat and pressure underground are hard due to the minerals they contain and how those minerals are joined together. However, not all rocks are hard. Soft rocks do exist. For example, soapstone is a type of soft rock. It can be easily scratched by your fingernail. Chalk is another type of soft rock. Did you know that rocks are found in some of the things we use at home, such as soap, toothpaste, makeup, and batteries. Why do bears hibernate in the winter. This question comes from Matthew. Bear hibernation is different from most other hibernating animals. In fact, many scientists would not even say it is real hibernation. Real hibernation, like we might see in ground squirrels, involves a drastic or sharp drop in body temperature, but the sleeping animal will wake up occasionally to go to the bathroom and maybe have a bite to eat before going back to sleep. When a bear hibernates, it is really in a deep sleep. Its body temperature drops, but not drastically, and it does not wake up, not even to go to the bathroom or get some food. The one exception to this is that a mother bear will wake up to give birth to her cubs in January or February. Since food is scarce in the winter, bears figure that if you can't eat, you might as well sleep. Bears that live in colder northern regions sleep in their dens right through the winter. In some cases that can be up to as long as seven months. Once spring arrives, the bear will come out from the den feeling very hungry. But not all types of bears will hibernate. Bears like the Asiatic bear, who live where it is warmer and where food is readily available all year long, don't need to hibernate. Why do we sleepwalk? Do animals sleepwalk? This question comes from Amelia Balentine. The exact reason why we sleepwalk is not known for sure, but it is believed to run in families, so if your parents sleepwalk, you might also. Some things that may cause a person to sleepwalk include a lack of sleep or being overtired, an irregular sleep schedule, an illness or fever, some medicines, or stress. Getting out of bed and walking around while still being asleep is the most obvious sleepwalking symptom we think of, but young sleepwalkers may also talk in their sleep, be hard to wake up, seem dazed, be clumsy, not answer when spoken to, or sit up in bed and go through repeated motions such as rubbing their eyes or fussing with their pajamas. Sleepwalking is far more common in kids than in adults. And your pet may be able to dream and move their legs in their sleep, but as far as we know, they cannot sleepwalk. Now, let's dive right into our questions about Halloween. When and how did trick or treating start? Halloween can trace its influences back to Roman times, where our current fun of bobbing for apples and pumpkin carving were inspired by the Roman goddess of fruit and vegetation, Panama. The traditional way of trick or treating can be traced back to All Saints' Day and All Souls Day, called Souling. People in Britain, Flanders, southern Germany, Austria and elsewhere would go door to door asking for soul cakes, a small round cake similar to a shortbread cookie. After some years, this tradition was taken over by children, and the cakes were replaced by yummy sugar retreats. The Halloween that we know today with all the fun decorations in stores, began when sugar rationing came to an end in nineteen forty seven during World War Two, all sugar had to be rationed. Seeing an opportunity, candy companies like Curtis and Brock began advertising campaigns featuring the concept of Halloween. It's hard to trace exactly when trick or treating began, but by nineteen fifty two the tradition of tricker treating was firmly established and grew in size every year since. Charles Schultz made sure that it was strongly shown by using it in his comic strip in nineteen fifty one. Peanuts also helped bring back the Halloween spirit at the time. These short cartoons showed the cartoon characters in Halloween themed costumes preparing for the holiday. Charles Schultz drew his iconic characters in ghost costumes preparing for Halloween ghosting. Pattie even used Charlie Brown as the model for her Jack o' lantern carving. This convinced children to get back into the Halloween spirit and made tricker treating popular again. Disney shortly after also helped popularize trick or treating with an eight minute short film featuring Donald Duck. Why are spiders associated with Halloween during this season? Just be for Winter is a period of time that we can see all kinds of increased activity from bugs. When it gets cold outside, these bugs look for a new place to call homes, and sometimes because your house is so comfy with nice warm temperatures, lots of snacks, water, and a place to take cover from the rain, your home also becomes a bug's home. As all these bugs sneak into your house, so do spiders. Because spiders being predators and bugs being their food, they go where they can catch them. And what spider wants to spend time outside in a snow bank? Anyways, Since Halloween was a holiday that originally helped mark the end of summer, a time for gathering, and a time that for many means the start of more time indoors, it's easy to see how spiders became a fixture of Halloween. It's this time of year that might see the most inside your house. In fact, right here where I am recording, there is one right up in the corner of the room. Which is kind of spooky. Fake spider webs as decorations may be fun for a few days, but you might not want to let the real ones stay up too long. Other than the fact that they are messy in your hair, they also might mean that there is a lot of food for them to eat. Lots of bugs might not be a good thing. One of the funny things about some spooky movies is all the spider webs. If the hallway in the movie has so many spider webs for so long, there must be a lot of bugs there. And spiders could also be associated with Halloween because of their color. The colors of Halloween are typically orange and black, which represent the typical fall colors with orange and the end of summer with black. Spiders also get a bad reputation as being creepy, which we know is not really deserved. That is, unless they are giant tarantulas, which is pretty spooky. I think, are bats really creepy things that fly around trying to suck our blood? No, this is not the case. Bats are really gentle, captivating creatures. Few people realize that bats provide us with important clues about our environment. The more bats there are around the healthier we know our ecosystem is. At this time of the year, it is actually more difficult to see bats as they are keeping a low profile as they look for suitable places to hibernate for the winter ahead. There are over one thousand species of bats, and only three are species of vampire Vampire bats really do exist. There are three species, all found in Central and South America, but they are nothing like the enormous ones we see in movies, about the same size as the palm of your hand. Vampire bats feed mainly on cows and other livestock. They make a small scratch on the animal's skin to start the blood flowing, then lap it up with their tongues. They drink about it tablespoon of blood each night. An anticoagulant or something in their saliva stops the animal's blood from clotting so that they can come back to the cut each night. One of these vampire bats is called the ghost bat and it is found in Australia. It is pale or light colored and is their only carnivorous or meat eating bat. Another type of vampire bat is called the little goblin bat, which can be found across Africa. South America and Australia are owls, an important animal at Halloween. October is also known as Owl Month. Owls are associated with Halloween because of their nocturnal nature, which means they sleep during the day and are active at night. It is also believed that owls once served as witches companions along with black cats. It isn't only the attention they get from the Halloween fun. This is a time of year when owls are more active. They are setting up their winter territories. That involves some interesting vocalizing on their part. Everyone knows that owl's hoot, but did you know they also hiss, bark, screech, whistle, whinny, and screen. Their calls include phrases like to to to to to to tu duh duk or quick quick quick or geek geeky. There are more. Owls are a perfect Halloween simple Most are creatures of the night and naturally spooky. Imagine if you heard one of their calls in your yard in the middle of the night. That is when they are most vocal. They are nocturnal by nature, but some are diurnal, which means act of both night and day. The owl is revered as one of the most intelligent animals, and which can bring good fortune to anyone who comes across its path. Fun facts about Halloween. It is estimated that the average kid eats almost seven thousand calories and candy on Halloween. To burn off that amount, you would have to take a walk for forty four hours. Finding a spider on Halloween night is considered good luck. In many parts of the world, Spiders are seen as a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Another superstition states that if a spider crawls into your pocket, it will bless you with everlasting wealth. Hocus Pocus is one of the most popular Halloween movies around. Trick or treating was banned during the nineteen forties due to a shortage of sugar rations. The most popular children's costumes on Halloween are superheroes and princesses. A full moon on Halloween night is considered rare. It only happens once every nineteen years. Studies found that fifty percent of children prefer to receive chocolate on Halloween. What about you, what do you prefer to receive on Halloween? Let us know. I'd like to say thank you to Layelah Richardson from Brisbane, Australia, Ria from California, and habib from Dublin, Ireland. We hope to have a chance to use your ideas in future episodes. If you'd like to send us your questions, please send them to Hello at sleep tightscience dot com
Speaker 1: You're listening to sleep Tight Science. Did you know the world record for the heaviest pumpkin is for a pumpkin that weighed two thousand, six hundred and twenty four point six pounds. What Hello, friends, and welcome back to sleep Tight Science, a bedtime show that answers the questions you have about science. In this episode, we are going to learn a little bit more about Halloween. It is pseudo scientific. Are you ready for Halloween? What is your favorite part of Halloween? Do you enjoy the trick or treating? In this episode, we are going to find out a little bit about the history of trick or treating. Can you imagine not being able to trick or treat because there was not enough sugar? That really happened? What animals do you think of when you think of Halloween. We are going to look at spiders, bats, and owls and see why they are often lumped in with all things Halloween. With Halloween being in the fall, there is a lot of movement with spiders, bats, and owls, So that might be one reason why we hear or think so much about this close to Halloween. The changing temperatures and food becoming harder defined is another reason why these creatures seem to be around more in the fall. Before we get started on our topic, let's look at a couple of questions sent in by our listeners. How does the world make rocks and why are they so hard? This question comes from Mattie in Germany. That's a bit of a tricky question, Mattie, because there are three main types of rocks, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic, and each kind is formed differently. Igneous rocks are formed when melted rock cools into a solid. This can happen underground or above the ground. Sedimentary rocks can take millions of years to form. When soil and surface materials erode or where away, they leave layers of sediments. Over long periods of time, layer upon layer of sediments form, and this puts enormous pressure on the oldest layers. Under this great pressure and heat, lower layers of sediments will eventually turn into rocks. Metamorphic rocks are rocks that have gone through some kind of change. Metamorphic rocks may start out as igneous, sedimentary, or even another type of rock. Changes in these rocks are prompted either by bumps that occur at the dividing lines of colliding tectonic plates, or intense heat and pressure underground are hard due to the minerals they contain and how those minerals are joined together. However, not all rocks are hard. Soft rocks do exist. For example, soapstone is a type of soft rock. It can be easily scratched by your fingernail. Chalk is another type of soft rock. Did you know that rocks are found in some of the things we use at home, such as soap, toothpaste, makeup, and batteries. Why do bears hibernate in the winter. This question comes from Matthew. Bear hibernation is different from most other hibernating animals. In fact, many scientists would not even say it is real hibernation. Real hibernation, like we might see in ground squirrels, involves a drastic or sharp drop in body temperature, but the sleeping animal will wake up occasionally to go to the bathroom and maybe have a bite to eat before going back to sleep. When a bear hibernates, it is really in a deep sleep. Its body temperature drops, but not drastically, and it does not wake up, not even to go to the bathroom or get some food. The one exception to this is that a mother bear will wake up to give birth to her cubs in January or February. Since food is scarce in the winter, bears figure that if you can't eat, you might as well sleep. Bears that live in colder northern regions sleep in their dens right through the winter. In some cases that can be up to as long as seven months. Once spring arrives, the bear will come out from the den feeling very hungry. But not all types of bears will hibernate. Bears like the Asiatic bear, who live where it is warmer and where food is readily available all year long, don't need to hibernate. Why do we sleepwalk? Do animals sleepwalk? This question comes from Amelia Balentine. The exact reason why we sleepwalk is not known for sure, but it is believed to run in families, so if your parents sleepwalk, you might also. Some things that may cause a person to sleepwalk include a lack of sleep or being overtired, an irregular sleep schedule, an illness or fever, some medicines, or stress. Getting out of bed and walking around while still being asleep is the most obvious sleepwalking symptom we think of, but young sleepwalkers may also talk in their sleep, be hard to wake up, seem dazed, be clumsy, not answer when spoken to, or sit up in bed and go through repeated motions such as rubbing their eyes or fussing with their pajamas. Sleepwalking is far more common in kids than in adults. And your pet may be able to dream and move their legs in their sleep, but as far as we know, they cannot sleepwalk. Now, let's dive right into our questions about Halloween. When and how did trick or treating start? Halloween can trace its influences back to Roman times, where our current fun of bobbing for apples and pumpkin carving were inspired by the Roman goddess of fruit and vegetation, Panama. The traditional way of trick or treating can be traced back to All Saints' Day and All Souls Day, called Souling. People in Britain, Flanders, southern Germany, Austria and elsewhere would go door to door asking for soul cakes, a small round cake similar to a shortbread cookie. After some years, this tradition was taken over by children, and the cakes were replaced by yummy sugar retreats. The Halloween that we know today with all the fun decorations in stores, began when sugar rationing came to an end in nineteen forty seven during World War Two, all sugar had to be rationed. Seeing an opportunity, candy companies like Curtis and Brock began advertising campaigns featuring the concept of Halloween. It's hard to trace exactly when trick or treating began, but by nineteen fifty two the tradition of tricker treating was firmly established and grew in size every year since. Charles Schultz made sure that it was strongly shown by using it in his comic strip in nineteen fifty one. Peanuts also helped bring back the Halloween spirit at the time. These short cartoons showed the cartoon characters in Halloween themed costumes preparing for the holiday. Charles Schultz drew his iconic characters in ghost costumes preparing for Halloween ghosting. Pattie even used Charlie Brown as the model for her Jack o' lantern carving. This convinced children to get back into the Halloween spirit and made tricker treating popular again. Disney shortly after also helped popularize trick or treating with an eight minute short film featuring Donald Duck. Why are spiders associated with Halloween during this season? Just be for Winter is a period of time that we can see all kinds of increased activity from bugs. When it gets cold outside, these bugs look for a new place to call homes, and sometimes because your house is so comfy with nice warm temperatures, lots of snacks, water, and a place to take cover from the rain, your home also becomes a bug's home. As all these bugs sneak into your house, so do spiders. Because spiders being predators and bugs being their food, they go where they can catch them. And what spider wants to spend time outside in a snow bank? Anyways, Since Halloween was a holiday that originally helped mark the end of summer, a time for gathering, and a time that for many means the start of more time indoors, it's easy to see how spiders became a fixture of Halloween. It's this time of year that might see the most inside your house. In fact, right here where I am recording, there is one right up in the corner of the room. Which is kind of spooky. Fake spider webs as decorations may be fun for a few days, but you might not want to let the real ones stay up too long. Other than the fact that they are messy in your hair, they also might mean that there is a lot of food for them to eat. Lots of bugs might not be a good thing. One of the funny things about some spooky movies is all the spider webs. If the hallway in the movie has so many spider webs for so long, there must be a lot of bugs there. And spiders could also be associated with Halloween because of their color. The colors of Halloween are typically orange and black, which represent the typical fall colors with orange and the end of summer with black. Spiders also get a bad reputation as being creepy, which we know is not really deserved. That is, unless they are giant tarantulas, which is pretty spooky. I think, are bats really creepy things that fly around trying to suck our blood? No, this is not the case. Bats are really gentle, captivating creatures. Few people realize that bats provide us with important clues about our environment. The more bats there are around the healthier we know our ecosystem is. At this time of the year, it is actually more difficult to see bats as they are keeping a low profile as they look for suitable places to hibernate for the winter ahead. There are over one thousand species of bats, and only three are species of vampire Vampire bats really do exist. There are three species, all found in Central and South America, but they are nothing like the enormous ones we see in movies, about the same size as the palm of your hand. Vampire bats feed mainly on cows and other livestock. They make a small scratch on the animal's skin to start the blood flowing, then lap it up with their tongues. They drink about it tablespoon of blood each night. An anticoagulant or something in their saliva stops the animal's blood from clotting so that they can come back to the cut each night. One of these vampire bats is called the ghost bat and it is found in Australia. It is pale or light colored and is their only carnivorous or meat eating bat. Another type of vampire bat is called the little goblin bat, which can be found across Africa. South America and Australia are owls, an important animal at Halloween. October is also known as Owl Month. Owls are associated with Halloween because of their nocturnal nature, which means they sleep during the day and are active at night. It is also believed that owls once served as witches companions along with black cats. It isn't only the attention they get from the Halloween fun. This is a time of year when owls are more active. They are setting up their winter territories. That involves some interesting vocalizing on their part. Everyone knows that owl's hoot, but did you know they also hiss, bark, screech, whistle, whinny, and screen. Their calls include phrases like to to to to to to tu duh duk or quick quick quick or geek geeky. There are more. Owls are a perfect Halloween simple Most are creatures of the night and naturally spooky. Imagine if you heard one of their calls in your yard in the middle of the night. That is when they are most vocal. They are nocturnal by nature, but some are diurnal, which means act of both night and day. The owl is revered as one of the most intelligent animals, and which can bring good fortune to anyone who comes across its path. Fun facts about Halloween. It is estimated that the average kid eats almost seven thousand calories and candy on Halloween. To burn off that amount, you would have to take a walk for forty four hours. Finding a spider on Halloween night is considered good luck. In many parts of the world, Spiders are seen as a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Another superstition states that if a spider crawls into your pocket, it will bless you with everlasting wealth. Hocus Pocus is one of the most popular Halloween movies around. Trick or treating was banned during the nineteen forties due to a shortage of sugar rations. The most popular children's costumes on Halloween are superheroes and princesses. A full moon on Halloween night is considered rare. It only happens once every nineteen years. Studies found that fifty percent of children prefer to receive chocolate on Halloween. What about you, what do you prefer to receive on Halloween? Let us know. I'd like to say thank you to Layelah Richardson from Brisbane, Australia, Ria from California, and habib from Dublin, Ireland. We hope to have a chance to use your ideas in future episodes. If you'd like to send us your questions, please send them to Hello at sleep tightscience dot com