HALLOWEEN

							     HALLOWEEN

HISTORY, COSTUMES, GAMES
            &
     FAVOURITE FOOD.
•   What do you know about this festivity?.
    Decide if the following statements are
    TRUE OR FALSE.

•   1.- Halloween is celebrated on 31st
    October in India and Poland.
•   2.- Halloween was first celebrated by the
    Celts. They made big fires and dressed
    in scary costumes because they wanted
    to frighten the evil spirits.
•   3.- The first name of this festivity was
    Samhain.
•   4.- When the Romans invaded Britain
    in 43 A.D., Samhain became a harvest
    festival.
•   5.- The Christians called 30th October
    “All Hallows Day” and 31st October
    “All Hallows Eve”.
• 6.- “All Hallows Eve” became HALLOWEEN.
• 7.- Nowadays, it is a popular tradition to
make “Jack O’ lanterns” out of melons.
The “Jack O’ lantern” is of Roman tradition.
8.- In the 18th Century, Italian immigrants took their
   Halloween customs to Ireland. They introduced the custom
   of “Trick or Treating”.
• 9.- A popular recipe for Halloween is “The Apple pie”.
• 10.- There is a funny Halloween game called “Bobbing for
   tomatoes”.
• 11.- In Britain, Ireland and The USA children go from
   house to house in their costumes and ring doorbells. When
   the doors are open, they shout “Trick or Treat”. People never
   give them sweets or money.
                           History
Halloween is an annual celebration.
People celebrate it on 31st October. It is an
exciting event in the United States and in
Great Britain. But the origin of this celebration
takes us back to Celtic Ireland.
On the Celtic calendar 31st October was the last day
of Summer and the last day of the year and this day
 was called *Samhain.
The Celtic priests, called Druids, practised religious and
 magical rituals and predicted the future on Samhain.
 On this day the Celts made big fires and dressed in
 scary costumes to *frighten evil spirits because they
 believed that ghosts came out of their tombs on the
 night of 31st October.
After the Romans invaded Britain in 43 A.D., Samhain
  became a festival to celebrate the harvest in Autumn, when
  people picked fruit and vegetables.

When the Christians arrived in Britain. They
tried to replace pagan practices and called 1st
November “All Hallows’ Day” (The day of All Saints)
 and 31st October became “All Hallows’Eve
( The day before ) ,and so, the name HALLOWEEN.
But the Celts never accepted the Christian traditions and so they
   still practise their own traditions. The custom of Halloween
   was taken to America in the 1840’s by Irish immigrants.
                   Celebrations
Nowadays, in the British Isles and the USA,
young people and children take their masks
and costumes to school and people decorate
their homes with pumpkins, witches and ghosts.
Typical Halloween costumes are: the witch, ghost,
alien, skeleton, monster or vampire. Many people have
fun making their own costumes, but some people
prefer to buy them. In the afternoon the children put
on their costumes and have a Halloween party at
school.
Schools are also decorated with pumpkins, ghosts,
witches and bats.
However, teenagers have a Halloween party in the
evening. The party is usually in the school gymnasium
and everyone wears acostume and a mask. The best
costume usually wins a prize.
                    Traditions
One of the Celtic traditions that is still alive at
  Halloween is to make “Jack O’ lanterns”.
  In Britain and Ireland                 people made them
  out of                 *turnips, but when the Irish
  immigrants took this
            tradition to America, it was
                difficult to find turnips and they chose
  pumpkins, a fruit from America, to make them.
To make “Jack O’ lanterns”, people *carve out the
  pumpkins and make figures on it. Then, they put a
  candle inside. People put them in front of the
  windows of their homes to keep evil spirits away from
  them.
               Trick or Treating
             In the Nineteenth Century              Irish
  immigrants
             introduced the custom of
             “trick-or-treating” in the USA. Today
  American and British children and teenagers
  go“trick-or-treating” on Halloween evening. They go
  from house to house in their costumes and ring
  doorbells. When the door opens they shout: “Trick or
  treat?”. People usually give them sweets or money. If
  not, the children play a trick, for
example, they write on windows with soap or *spray
  shaving cream on cars and people.
              Games and pies
There are funny Halloween games such as
            “bobbing for apples”. As you
             can see in the picture, people
              get apples from a bucket
             full of water without using
             their hands but their mouths.
             If you want to have a
             successful Halloween party,
             make an American pumkin pie.
             It’s delicious and easy to
              make!
                   Pumpkin pie recipe
            Ingredients: recipe for four people.
                          2 kg of pumpkin
                          ½ litre of milk
                         4 eggs
                         4 tablespoons of flour
                         1 teaspoon of *baking powder
                         100 gr of butter
                         ¼ teaspoon of salt
                         ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon powder
Utensils to use: a big saucepan, a tablespoon, a teaspoon,
a wooden spoon, a big bowl, a non-stick pie dish.
Cut the pumpkin into small pieces and remove the *peel. Put the pieces into a big
   saucepan and add the milk. Cook the mixture for 30 minutes and don’t forget to
   mix it while it’s cooking.
Now break the eggs into a bowl, add the flour, baking powder, butter, salt and
   cinnamon powder.
Mix these ingredients well. Add the pumpkin and milk mixture to the ingredients in
   the bowl and mix. Put the mixture into a non-stick pie dish. Put the dish into the
   oven (180ºC)for one hour. Serve the pumpkin pie cold.
                                 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
           Useful vocabulary
Samhain/ saun/
To frighten a person: to make a person be scared.
To carve a pumpkin out: to take the pulp of the
  pumpkin with a knife.
Spray shaving cream: cream men spread on their
  faces to cut off hair from their faces with a razor
  (cuchilla).
Baking powder: powder used to cook bread and cakes.
Peel: the outer covering of a fruit or vegetable.