Listening Activity 2

You must listen de podcast called “Thinking in English” in Spotify, Chapter 14 “What is Halloween?”
From the minute 4:26 to 12:05.

1. Listen and fill in the gaps.

To start today’s episode, I’d like you to imagine this situation. You’re standing on a hill in Ancient Ireland,
looking over a field below you. It is a pitch-black night in late October or early November. The air is so
cold that your breath turns to steam as soon as you breath out, and an icy rain is falling from the sky.
Although the night is pitch black, it is glowing 1. ________________ thanks to a massive fire burning in
the field. Around the fire, hundreds of people, who have travelled from neighbouring villages just for this
celebration, are gathering. They are clad head to toe in strange garments, including animal heads and animal
skins. Into the fire they are throwing crops and animals as sacrifices, while trying to tell each other's
fortunes. After the ceremony is over, they travel home and relight their home’s fires using the fire from
the bonfire. What is this strange ceremony that you have just witnessed? Well, it was actually the start of
a holiday that we now call Halloween.

Actually, today is also Halloween! Or, at least, the day I’m uploading this episode (October 31st, 2020) will
be Halloween. You’ve probably heard about Halloween before: scary movies, costume parties, trick or
treating, decorating houses, and eating a lot of chocolate. These are just some of the common and popular
ways of celebrating the day in the 21st century. But how much do you really know about Halloween? Where
did the 2. ________________ start? And when? What is the reason behind the holiday? Why do children
go trick or treating, and dress up as scary monsters?

Let’s start with the history of Halloween. The origins of Halloween can be found in the ancient festival of
Samhain (pronounced Sow-in). This was a Celtic festival (the celts lived in parts of Northern Europe
especially the British Isles, Ireland and Northern France 2000 years ago) celebrating their new year, as well
as the end of summer, beginning of 3. ________________, and the harvest. However, they also believed
that during the night before the new year, the world of living people and the world of dead people became
even more connected. Samhain, celebrated on the 31st 4. ________________ was the day when the
ghosts of their ancestors returned to their world. They built large fires, dressed in strange costumes, made
predictions about the future, and sacrificed crops and animals to the spirits.

1000 years ago, Chrisitan religion became one of the largest, if not the largest, religions in the British Isles
and therefore Celtic territory. At the same time, the catholic church made its own festival on November
2nd to honour the dead; known as All Souls Day. The celts, although now Christian, continued to celebrate
using the same methods, bonfires, parades, and dressing in costumes! The day, in old English, was known
as All-Hallowmas, and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to
be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. As Europeans began to move to North America,
they took their traditions with them, including Halloween. However, it wasn’t until the second half of the
19th century and the millions of 5. ________________ who landed in the USA at that time, that
Halloween became popular all over the nation. But this Halloween was very different to what we, today,
understand as Halloween.

So, let’s now think about some of our current traditions, and why we actually do these things. It is quite
common for people, all around the world, to continue traditions for hundreds of years without actually
knowing why. First, what about trick or treating? Trick or treating is where people, usually children dressed
in costumes, go from door to door on Halloween asking for sweets with the exclamation ‘trick or treat’.
Why? It is borrowed from the ancient European traditions of dressing up in costumes. In the 19th century,
Americans also began to 6. ________________ in costumes and go house to house asking for food or
money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. At the same time, the parts of
Halloween that were superstitious and religious were less and less important! It is now estimated that
Americans spend $6 billion a year on candy for Halloween.

How about costumes? Again, it is connected to the Celtic roots. On Halloween, when it was believed that
ghosts came back to the world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes.
To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after
dark. Some of the most popular costumes are 7. __________________________, and the like. Recently,
other costumes are becoming just as popular; for instance, characters from TV or movies, costumes that
are attractive rather than terrifying, and even funny costumes related to internet memes.

What about pumpkins? Carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns is a popular Halloween tradition that
originated hundreds of years ago in Ireland. Back then, however, jack-o’-lanterns were made out of turnips
or 8. ________________ it wasn’t until Irish immigrants arrived in America and discovered the pumpkin
that a new Halloween ritual started!

2. What do you think about the text?

_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

3. Make a summary of the text with your words.

_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________