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Level 3 – Intermediate
Halloween
Halloween is celebrated in Britain, Ireland, America and other countries on the night of 31st October every year. But what is it a celebration of? And how and where did this strange custom originate?
The name Halloween has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from All Hollows Day or All Saints’ Day which is on 1st November and honours Catholic Saints. But the Halloween celebration is not a Christian festival. It is a very ancient custom which probably dates back to fifth century Ireland. For the ancient Celts, the 31st October was officially the last day of summer and it was a holiday called Samhain. People believed that on this day the spirits of the dead came back to visit the living.
Nowadays it is a popular children’s celebration. After dark on Halloween, children dress up as ghosts, skeletons, witches and other dreadful things from the supernatural world. They go from house to house trying to frighten people and asking for a trick or a treat.
People give them cakes and sweets. If they don’t give them anything, they play a trick. Another custom is to make lanterns from pumpkins. To make a so called jack-o’-lantern, you cut out a nose, a mouth and eyes to make a face in the pumpkin and you put a lighted candle inside. Although pumpkin jack-o’-lanterns are typically American, the custom also originates in Ireland where they used turnips to make the lanterns. The Irish took the Halloween custom to America in the 1840s.
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Answer the questions below to check how well you understand the text.
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C2 Mastery
