Do the preparation task first. Then read the article and do the exercises.
Preparation
The origins of Halloween
If you think of Halloween, you probably think of scary carved pumpkins, all kinds of fancy dress and children asking for sweets. And if you think of a country that celebrates Halloween, you probably think of the United States first. Americans and Canadians have adopted Halloween in a big way, but Halloween traditions actually come from 16th-century Ireland, Scotland and England.
The tradition of Halloween on 31 October comes from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain was the Celtic New Year and they celebrated it on 1 November because that was the end of summer and harvest time (life) and the beginning of winter (death). It was also the time for ghosts to return to earth for a day. People lit a big fire, wore special clothes made of animal skin and hoped to be safe from the ghosts and the winter. In AD 609, the Catholic Church put the Christian celebration of All Saints Day on 1 November. In AD 1000, the church added All Souls Day on 2 November, and All Hallows Eve – or Halloween – moved to the night of the 31st.
Pumpkins
The Celts carved faces into vegetables like turnips and potatoes to scare the ghosts and other spirits and make them go away. It was sometimes called a jack-o'-lantern because of an Irish story about a man, Jack. He played a trick on the devil and then had to walk the earth for all time as a punishment. Irish people who came to live in the United States in the 1800s found pumpkins much easier to carve, and the tradition became the one we see today.
Fancy dress
The Celts were afraid of the ghosts that came on Samhain. If they went outside after dark, they covered their faces with masks. They hoped any ghosts they met would think they were ghosts too and would leave them alone. In early America, the Native Americans and the first Europeans celebrated the end of the harvest, but not Halloween. When Irish people arrived, the harvest festival started to look more like Halloween and it became popular across the country. In the late 19th century, people tried to make Halloween less about ghosts and religion and more about celebrating the season with a party for neighbours and family. That’s why Americans today wear all kinds of Halloween costumes and not just scary things like witches and ghosts like in other countries.
Trick or treat
This is another tradition that began in Europe, this time in England. When the church introduced All Souls Day, rich people gave poor people 'soul cakes', a small cake made with spices and raisins. It replaced the Celtic tradition of leaving food outside houses for the ghosts. 'Going a-souling' was popular in England for hundreds of years until about the 1930s. The Americans kept the tradition, but today children knock on people’s doors and ask for sweets. Going trick or treating is so popular that a quarter of the sweets for the year in the United States are sold for this one day.
The rest of the world
Halloween has become the United States' second-biggest commercial festival after Christmas. Halloween is also celebrated in other countries, but it's not as big as in the United States, even in the countries where the traditions began. Mexico celebrates the Day of the Dead from 31 October to 2 November and some of its traditions, like giving gifts of sugar skulls, are starting to mix with Halloween. In this way, the celebration of Halloween continues to change as new traditions join the oldest of the Celtic ones.
This surely was interesting I believed I knew all about halloween but i stand corrected,it had information that is enjoyable to say the least.
I'm from Mexico, so I don't celebrate Halloween like people in the US, I usually just go to a party with my friends. However the Day of the Dead is something I celebrate with my family, and it's celebrated all over the country. This day is very important for Mexicans because it's when we remember our loved ones.
It's a nice paragraph, with a lot of stories. I'm very happy to know the reason why they carve faces into pumpkins!
pls change the information about carving squash, it's not a European vegetable, Celts couldn't have carved it -,-
Hello aneekee,
We're sorry for any confusion this might have caused and are working on a revision that will correct this error.
Thanks very much for taking the time to point this out to us.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
I don't celebrate Halloween. Now there are a lot of parties but they didn't have the meanings of the celebration, it's only an excuse. I don't like dress fancy so I have never gone.
I don't celebrate Halloween, but I do buy sweets for my grandchildren. No one really comes to knock at my door, probably because my house isn't in an area where children come for trick-or-treating.
Unfortunately, I haven't celebrated Halloween in my life, I hope someday to visit a place where this tradition is celebrated. Every year I celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico, In my opinion, those celebrations are not similar at all and that's great. I think the Day of the Dead is more spiritual than Halloween but Halloween is more attractive to young people.
I only wore a fancy dress as a ghost at school because we were studying the difference between the Day of the Dead and Halloween, anyway If I had read this article before, I would have known more about the history.
“La Castanyada” is the traditional festivity from Catalonia where we eat sweet potatoes and “panellets” (typical bakery from the region).
We sing a children's song called “La Castanyera”. We wear fancy dresses like in the rest of the world, but here there are people who dress up like the “castanyera” (an old woman who sells chestnuts in the street).
On 31st October we get together with family and friends to eat chestnuts and the typical deserts.
Traditionally we do not celebrate Halloween in my country, however it is getting more and more popular these days, as people are having lots of fun wearing fancy dresses and having parties. It is very entertaining to see people in all these fascinating costumes, like once we saw a guy wearing The Witcher's costume and it was fantastic.