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Halloween is Coming!
24 October 2007.
A lot of people who visit Britain in October are surprised at the popularity of Halloween, the festival we celebrate every year on 31 October. The British are often asked, "Isn't that an American festival?"
True, some of our Halloween celebrations have been influenced by the USA and Canada, but the festival originated in Europe.
A Short History of Halloween
Halloween began many years ago in Britain and Ireland as a pagan festival that celebrated the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. People believed that at this time of year, the barrier between the living world and the spirit world was very weak, and the dead could enter our world and do terrible things.
The early festivals involved lighting a bonfire and wearing masks and costumes to mimic evil spirits and hopefully keep them away. One custom was to carve a face into a turnip (a type of vegetable) and put a candle inside it.
When Irish and Scottish immigrants went to America in the 19th century, they took with them the festival of Halloween (or 'All Hallows Eve' as it used to be called). The American pumpkin was used instead of the turnip and it became a symbol of Halloween.
HALLOWEEN CUSTOMS
Today, as well as telling scary stories and watching horror films, we often celebrate Halloween with...
Fancy Dress Parties (or 'costume parties' in American English)
We dress up as ghosts, monsters, witches, wizards, devils, zombies and other scary creatures.
Trick or Treat?
Children (in fancy dress) knock on the doors of their neighbours and say, 'Trick or treat?' This means: 'give us some sweets (=a treat) or we will be naughty and play a practical joke on you (=a trick)'. A popular Halloween treat is a toffee apple - an apple on a stick and covered in toffee.
Apple Bobbing
A traditional game where you have to pick an apple out of a bucket of water using only your teeth!
Pumpkin Carving
We hollow out a pumpkin and cut holes in it to make it look like a face. We then put a candle inside it. The finished item is called a jack-o'-lantern.
Other Decorations
For Halloween parties, we often decorate the room with cobwebs (=spiders' webs), bats, skeletons, spiders - anything scary!
THE BEST HALLOWEEN LINKS
Learn Halloween Vocabulary
Halloween words - Look on the right. There is also a reading exercise.
Vocabulary Games - Easy
Memory Game - Match the words and the pictures
Games for Kids - Easy
Haunted House 1 - (find the correct object)
Haunted House 2 - (find the animal)
Vocabulary Games - Medium
Quiz - Medium
Hangman - Difficult!
Have fun, and happy Halloween!
