Halloween All Hallows’ Eve

Halloween: a holiday celebrated on October 31 in which people dress in scary costumes

Pumpkin: a large, orange vegetable associated with Halloween

to carve: to cut with a large knife

jack-o-lantern: Americans traditionally cut out scary faces in pumpkins and put a candle inside. These pumpkins with faces are called "jack-o-lanterns." Jack-o-lanterns are made to scare away evil spirits on Halloween.

Costume: scary clothing or disguises worn on Halloween

a costume party: a party where everyone dresses in scary costumes

trick or treat: On Halloween, children go from house to house and say "trick or treat." This phrase means "give me candy or I will play a trick on you." Families usually give the children candy. If the children don't get candy, they sometimes play mean tricks like breaking the house's jack-o-lantern or putting soap on its windows.

a skeleton: a body of nothing but bones

a ghost: the spirit of a dead person which appears again

a witch: a woman with magic powers (usually evil)

a warlock N. a man with magic powers (usually evil)

The Origins of Halloween

The origins of Halloween are very old.

In fact, this festivity started in Celtic Britain.

The Celts lived in the British Isles during ancient times.

The Celts were pagans.

l They believed in the gods of nature.

There were two important festivals on the Celtic calendar:

Beltane: [ˈbelteɪn] celebrated the

beginning of summer.

Samhain:[saun] the start of winter, on November 1.

Samhain was also the

first day of the year

on the Celtic calendar

The festival of Samhain started on October 31 and finished on November 1.

The Celts were afraid of winter.

The days were short and cold,

and the nights were very long.

They associated winter

with death and evil spirits.

The Celts believed that

on the night of October 31

the spirits of the dead

came out of their tombs.

The Celts made big fires to

frighten the ghosts

They also wore scary costumes.

The Celts played games on October 31 to bring good luck in the year.

The colours of Halloween are of Celtic origin.

Black was the colour

of winter and

long nights.

Orange was the

colour of the harvest.

The black cat is another symbol of Halloween.

l The Celts believed that the black cat had special powers.

After the Roman invasion in AD 43

the Romans combined Samhain

with their festival, Pomona [pəʊˈməʊnə].

Pomona was the Roman goddess

of gardens and fruit trees

and this festival celebrated the harvest.

Many years after the Roman invasion, Christian

practices substituted pagan ones.

On the first day of November, Christians celebrated All Saints’ Day

or All Hallows’ Day. The evening of October 31

was All Hallows’ Eve. This became Halloween.

The Druid religion continued for a long

time in Ireland and

Scotland, and people continued to celebrate Halloween

In the 19th century, Irish immigrants took their

Halloween traditions to the United States

Now Halloween is a very big

festivity in the United States and in many

other countries too.

The Story of the Jack-o-Lantern

Jack, it seems, was a bad man.

He kept all his money to himself.

He wouldn't help people

for all of his life.

When Jack died, he wasn't allowed into

Heaven because he was

such a miser

miser: [ˈmaɪzə] a person who wouldn't share his money.

It seems that Jack also had played tricks on the Devil

The Devil didn’t let him into hell, either.

Jack was stuck.

l He had to walk the earth, holding a lantern, until Judgment Day.

The Irish carved their turnips into the face of "Jack-of-the-lantern"

to remind themselves what happened to people who were misers

And in the fall, pumpkins are much easier to find than turnips.

So that's why Americans today

carve their pumpkins into

jack-o-lanterns.