On October 31, Americans celebrate Halloween.
Halloween means “holy” (hallow) “evening” (een). This is the evening before the Christian holy day of All Saints Day. On All Saints Day, Christians remember the Saints but Halloween is even older than Christianity.
Before Christianity, people in Europe believed that on October 31 ghosts of dead people came back. To scare the ghosts, people dressed like devils and were very noisy. They also made big fires to keep the ghosts away. Later, people did not believe in ghosts, but they kept the day of Halloween for fun.
Immigrants came from Europe to America and brought with them the custom of Halloween. Halloween has some strange symbols. One symbol is the jack-o’-lantern in the window. The jack-o’-lantern is to scare the ghosts.
People cut the pumpkin, throw away all of the inside, and cut a face in it.
Then they put a candle inside of it.
Jack-o’-lantern usually look scary, too !
Today, in the United States, Halloween is very popular with the children.
They wear masks and special costumes. They want to look like skeletons and ghosts.
Then they go from house to house and say “ Trick or treat! “. People give them candies, cookies or fruit. When people give nothing, the children sometimes play tricks on them.
Write T (true) or F (false) . __ 1. On October 31, Americans celebrate Christianity.
__ 2. In the past people made fires to keep the ghosts away.
__ 3. Halloween came from Europe.
__ 4. The jack-o’-lantern is a kind of special pumpkin to eat.
__ 5. On Halloween children wear special masks and costumes because they want to look like skeletons and ghosts __ 6. Children go from party to party and collect masks.
__ 7. On Halloween children say:
“Trick or fun”.
Answer the questions.
1. When do people celebrate Halloween ?
________________________________________________
2. Why did people dress like devils ?
________________________________________________
3. Why did people keep the day of Halloween ? ________________________________________________
4. What do people put inside the pumpkin with the cutting face ? ______________________________
5. Where do they put the jack-o’-lantern ?
________________________________________________
6. Why do they use the lantern ?
________________________________________________
7. What do people give the children when they go from house to house ?
______________________________________
