There is nothing more terrifying than old moldy food in the fridge, which is why Haunted Refrigerator Night on October 30 is such a great holiday, a night for ghostly occurrences and hauntings. Not only that it fits in with #Halloween week leading up to Halloween.
Haunted Refrigerator Night fits right into the spirit of the Halloween festival, which is the next day. October 30th is also Mischief Night, Cabbage Night, or the Night of the Devil, and is a fun way to remove the lurking dangers lying in wait at the back of your fridge.
Thank the LORD for Haunted Refrigerator Night because from all the kids being here and Charlie being sick our Ice Box and yes, it is a refrigerator is full of leftovers and I’m sure of them have been in there forever. It’s time to clean our refrigerator out and to get it organized for Thanksgiving which will lead to even more leftovers.
Did you know the tradition of storing food in cold places has been around for a long time, since the ancient Persians, Historians believe they were the first to use cold storage for food, although the Ice was harvested for various purposes since 1000 B.C. Societies like the Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews, also stored Snow in insulated materials to keep their food cool, according to various sources.
Back then, Ice harvesting was the only way to ‘refrigerate’ food. People would preserve Ice collected during the Winter season in cold stores to use in the Summer. By the 19th Century, this method was replaced by the use of Iceboxes that were usually made of wood and had a large block of Ice inside to keep things chilly. The icebox is commonly called the early precursor to the refrigerator.
Then came Frederic Tudor a American businessman and founder of the Tudor Ice Company realized that he could easily ship Ice from the Ponds of Massachusetts to the Caribbean. Years later, he was shipping Ice practically everywhere, from the Caribbean to Europe, to India, and even Hong Kong.
His contributions to the Ice trade earned him the moniker of ‘Ice King’ in Boston. He showed the hotter tropical Countries just how much they needed Ice, and by the 1930s, Ice was a mass-market commodity all over the world.
However, because it was difficult to harvest Ice and dangerous too, as people had to extract Ice from frozen ponds multiple people tried to invent artificial means of refrigeration. The first person with relative success at this endeavor was Scottish professor William Cullen, who designed a small refrigerating machine in 1755.
But, the amount of Ice generated from this machine was too little for the invention to be considered practical. Over the next decade, multiple inventors would similarly try their hand at inventing refrigerating devices, and many of these earlier inventions made it to the consumer market as well. Over time, the design became more streamlined, the engines more eco-friendly, and the storage spaces larger. So much so that we can now store food for a long time until they barely resemble what they once were.
The 21st Century has left us spoilt for choice in terms of food storage options. We have various designs, models, sizes, and functionalities. This may be the reason why we sometimes cannot find leftovers in the vast depths of our chilly caverns.
This also may be why American actor Thomas Roy and his wife decided to create Haunted Refrigerator Night as a special holiday. And what better time to tackle the scary mess that is your refrigerator than the night before Halloween?
According to these perennial holiday creators they have created more than 75 holidays in all(!) and they had a tradition of cleaning out the horrors in their fridge right before Halloween each year, and the idea sprung from this. Whatever their reason, we are glad to get a little push to clean out our refrigerators.
How To Celebrate Haunted Refrigerator Night
- Muster all your courage today and dig into your refrigerator for all those smelly, expired food that you cannot possibly consume anymore, and toss them out. A terrifying business, yes, but it must be done. Dess in your protective gear, hold your breath, gather your loved ones, and delve deep into your refrigerator.
- Since you are already cleaning, you might as well take the opportunity to wipe down the entire refrigerator just to make sure all the poor haunted food spirits and germs are gone. Turn the refrigerator off, take out all your frozen food temporarily, remove the partitions, and clean all the surfaces with a cloth rag and some bleach to keep them sterilized. Yes, you can use #bleach.
- Make a promise to yourself (and your family) that you will always keep the refrigerator clean and haunt-free then make your family take the promise as well. Then promise that you will actually use your leftovers in the year to come. And finally, promise that you will share your food with other people while it is still fresh so it doesn’t go to waste.
Facts About Refrigerators
- Some foodborne pathogens can grow even in refrigerated temperatures which is why companies recommend keeping the temperature at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below.
- The back is the coolest spotIf you don’t have an ice maker in your refrigerator, the back of the bottom shelf or the area closest to the ice cubes are the coolest spots.
- Doors are the warmest spotsWarm air from opening and closing the doors hits food stored on the doors first, so highly perishable items like eggs should not be kept there.
- Overcrowding spoils foodLoading the refrigerator with too many items blocks the air vents, causing poor circulation of cold air, which means food gets spoiled faster.
- Hot leftovers in the fridgeHot food can go directly into the fridge, but they need to be in smaller portions and stored in shallow containers, to allow safe cooling and prevent bacteria growth.
Why We Love Haunted Refrigerator Night
- Exploring the nooks and crannies of our precious refrigerators gives us an in-depth look at the workings (and forgotten foodstuffs). We can honestly say we know our refrigerators much better after this night.
- Move over, Spring cleaning! We are onto a new tradition although this should really be a daily (or weekly) thing to clean out the unidentifiable and unusable items.
- Instead of leaving leftovers in the refrigerator for so long, they resemble hazardous waste, Haunted Refrigerator Night pushes us to use our food which reduces the chances of having spoiled food that has to be tossed away.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
