A HALLOWEEN

SPECIAL
“Trick or Treat!

Smell my feet!

Gimme something,

Good to eat!”

Where did Halloween

come from?
Halloween is the scariest night of the year! It is celebrated on 31 st October.
It is widely known as an American holiday, but it is believed the tradition of Halloween
actually dates back to Britain many centuries
ago, in a Celtic festival called Samhain (which
means 'summer's end'). Samhain was a three-
day festival that began on 31st October and
marked the beginning of winter.

It is said that, at that time of the year, ghosts

came back to visit the living. People were afraid
of evil spirits and disguised themselves using
scary costumes. They would also light bonfires
to try to scare them away.

In the mid-8th Century, Pope Gregory III moved

the date of All Saints Day from 13th May - the
date of the Roman festival of the Dead - to 1st
November, in the middle of Samhain. The 31st October became known as All Hallows' Eve.
The name Halloween - or All Hallows' Eve - comes from the Old English word halga or which
means 'holy'.
In 1845, the Great Potato Famine forced around one million people living in Ireland to move
to the US, taking traditions like Halloween with them.

It was in America that the pumpkin became the vegetable that we all associate with the
festival. In the UK, people used to carve turnips!

What happens on Halloween?

Some of things you might expect on 31st
October include:

 Scary fancy dress and make-up

 Making pumpkin lanterns
 Special food made for the occasion
 Trick or treating
 Bobbing for apples
 Telling ghost stories
 Receiving scares from friends
 Lots of sweets
 Decorations of spiders, bats and other
scary creatures

Not everyone likes celebrating Halloween, though. Some religious people believe that
making a game out of evil spirits is wrong.

Activities
Before you read Quiz
1. Look at the pictures. Which 1. It is celebrated on the
picture(s) show(s):
 people in fancy dress
last day of October. Yes No
 trick or treating 2. Halloween comes from
 a pumpkin lantern an old American tradition. Yes No
 bobbing for apples 3. People believed that on this

Reading day the dead visited the living. Yes No

4. The British used to carve
2. What do you know about
pumpkins on Halloween. Yes No
Halloween? Do the quiz, then
read the text and find out. 5. People cook special food
on that day. Yes No
6. People tell each other spooky
stories on that day. Yes No
3. Read again and answer the questions.
a. What was Samhain?
b. What does the name Halloween mean?
c. Who brought the tradition of Halloween to the States?

Vocabulary
4. Match the words in bold in the text to their meanings below.
a. the evening before
b. dressed up
c. connect
d. started in
e. large open-air fires
f. round vegetables
g. cut in a special way
h. made
i. bad ghosts

Speaking
5. Have you got a similar festival in your country? When and how is it celebrated?