Elementary

Today you are going to read about Halloween and All Saints’ Eve.

First read the text about Halloween customs. Először olvasd el a Halloween szokásairól szóló
szöveget.

Halloween is on the 31st October. Children in the United States go ‘trick-or-treating’. They dress up
as ghosts, witches (boszorkány) or devils (ördög). Then they visit their neighbours’ houses. They ask,
‘Trick or treat?’ The neighbour has to give them a treat, for example chocolate, OR they play a trick
(megviccelni) on the neighbour. For example they throw water into the house.
The main event (fő esemény) of modern US-style Halloween is trick-or-treating, in which children
dress up in costume (jelmez) and go door-to-door in their neighbourhood, ringing each doorbell and
shouting "trick or treat!"
In Ireland, great bonfires (máglya) were lit throughout the land. Young children in their costumes
were gladly welcomed by the neighbours with some "fruit, apples and nuts and of course sweets" for
the "Halloween Party".
In Scotland, children or guisers usually say "The sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our
Halloween" instead of "trick or treat!". They visit neighbours in groups and must impress(lenyűgözni)
the members of the houses they visit with a song, poem, trick, joke or dance in order to get their
treats. Traditionally, nuts, oranges, apples and dried fruit were offered, though sometimes children
would also earn a small amount of cash, usually a sixpence. Very small children often take part.
In England, trick or treating does take place, particularly (legfőképp, különösen) in working class
neighbourhoods. On the whole, however, people usually think of it as a form of begging (kéregetés)
and as a negative part of American global culture.
Tricks are not so important in modern Halloween, though vandalism is typical of Halloween night.
Vandalism can be soaping windows, egging houses or stringing (felfűz) toilet paper through trees.
Typical Halloween costumes have traditionally been monsters such as vampires, ghosts, witches, and
devils. In recent years, it has become common for costumes to be based on themes other than
traditional horror, such as dressing up as a character from a TV show or movie, or choosing a
recognizable (felismerhető) face from the public sphere, such as a politician (in 2004, for example,
George W. Bush and John F. Kerry were both popular costumes in America). In 2001, after the
September 11 attacks, for example, costumes of Islamic terrorists, firefighters, police officers, and
United States military personnel became popular among children and adults. In 2004, about 2.15
million children in the United States were expected to dress up as Spider-Man, the year's most
popular costume.
"'Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" has become common during Halloween in North America. Started as a
local event in a Philadelphia suburb in 1950, and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves
(magába foglal) the distribution (kiosztás) of small boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which
they can collect small change donations (adomány) from the houses they visit. It is estimated (úgy
becsülik) that children have collected more than $119 million for UNICEF since the start.
BIG research conducted a survey (közvéleménykutatást végezni)in the US and found that 53.3% of
consumers (fogyasztó) planned to buy a costume for Halloween 2005, spending $38.11 on. An
estimate (becsült érték) of $3.3 billion was made for the holiday spending.
A child usually "grows out of" trick-or-treating by his or her teenage years. Teenagers and adults
instead often celebrate Halloween with costume parties, bonfire parties, staying home to give out
candy, listening to Halloween music, watching horror movies or scaring (megijeszteni) people.

Now answer the questions. Most válaszolj a kérdésekre.

1. When does Halloween take place?

2. What kind of frightening creatures does the text mention?
3. What can children say when they visit their neighbours?
4. What tricks does the text mention?
5. What do people give to children?
6. What kind of costumes can you wear on Halloween?
7. What is the UNICEF programme about?
8. How much money did people spend on Halloween last year?
9. What do teenagers do on Halloween?

Now read some jokes in connection with Halloween, and fill in the missing words. Use the
words from the list.
Most néhány Halloweennel kapcsolatos viccet olvashattok, és írjátok be a hiányzó szavakat.
Használjátok a listán szereplő szavakat.

SKELETON (CSONTVÁZ) / BEACH / BROOM (SEPRŰ)

1. Q. Why didn’t the __________ go to the Halloween party? A. Because he had no body to go
with.

2. Q. What do you call two witches living together? A. ________mates.

3. Q. What do you call a witch who lives at the _________? A. A sand-witch.

Now here is a Halloween poem. Itt van egy Halloween vers.

Collect all the expressions from the poem which
Gyűjtsd ki a versből az összes olyan kifejezés, ami

1. Refer to creatures: / teremtményekre utal:

2. Refer to voices: / hangokra utal:
3. Refer to movements: / mozdulatokra utal:
4. Refer to feelings: / érzésekre utal:

Bats, witches here they all come. I am frozen and my fingers are numb.
I hear screaming kids crying for help. I stand still then I see,
Skeletons and zombies coming over to me. I panic in fear.
I've got know where to go dash off as fast as I can.
I run and I run then I wake up.
It was all a dream of the scariest time on Halloween.

Intermediate

Read the text first.

Halloween is an annual celebration.

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from All
Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance
in honour of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October
31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the
preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was
believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were
suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would
extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in
all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighbourhood, being as destructive
as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have
already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these
stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was
assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such
as their day to honour Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the
apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit
possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more
ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their
country's potato famine. At that time, the favourite pranks in New England included tipping over
outhouses and unhinging fence gates.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-
century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would
walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with
currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say
on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in
limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to
heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack,
who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an
image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that,
if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil
ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave
him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a
hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America,
they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was
a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favourite "holiday," the day itself did
not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of
Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or
pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

Now answer the questions.

1. What are the origins of Halloween?

2. How did people protect themselves from the disembodied spirits?
3. How was Halloween brought to America?
4. What customs are mentioned in the text?

Now read some jokes in connection with Halloween, and fill in the missing words. Use the
words from the list.

FALSE / PARENTS / BAKERY /SUBJECT / BAT

1. Q. What is a witch's favourite ________ in school? A. Spelling

2. Q. Why are vampires like _______ teeth? A. They all come out at night.
3. Q. How can you tell when a vampire has been in a _______? A. All the jelly has been sucked
out of the jelly doughnuts.
4. Q. How can you tell a vampire likes baseball? A. Every night he turns into a _______.
5. Q. What do you call a little monster’s _______? A. mummy and deady.

Now here is a Halloween poem. Collect all the expressions from the poem which

1. Refer to different types of treats:

2. Refer to feelings of fright:
3. Refer to the weather:
4. Means to wait or move in a secret way so that you cannot be seen, especially because you are
about to attack someone or do something wrong:
5. Means in great amounts or numbers:

--Halloween Night--

The wind is moaning this moonlight night

Ready to give you a creepy fright!
Vampires are waiting for a tasty treat
Ready to suck all the blood they can eat!
Dressed up in costumes give your neighbours a scare!
Lurking in the shadows are goblins.... beware!!!
Trick-or-treat, they open the door
Candies and pumpkins and munchies galore
What treats could the next house have in store?
I'm tired, I'm frightened....but, please give me more!!!

Advanced

First read the text and complete it with the missing words.

Halloween is a tradition celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in
1.________ and going door-to-door collecting sweets. It is celebrated in parts of the Western world,
though most common in Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, Ireland, and with increasing
popularity in Australia, and sometimes celebrated in New Zealand. Halloween originated among the
Celts in Ireland, Britain and France as the Pagan Celtic harvest festival, Samhain. Irish, Scots, Calan
Gaeaf in Welsh and other immigrants brought versions of the traditions to North America in the 19th
2.________. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop
culture in the late 20th century.
The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the
evening before "All Hallows' Day" (also 3._______ as "All Saints' Day"). In Ireland, the name was
All Hallows' Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldomly used today, it is still a well-
accepted label. Halloween was also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of
religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by
Christian missionaries and given a Christian interpretation. Halloween is also called Pooky Night in
some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.
Halloween is often associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween
is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the 4.________
world and when magic is most potent.
The imagery surrounding Hallowe'en is largely an amalgamation of the Hallowe'en season itself,
nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized
take on the dark,diaria and mysterious. This art generally involves death, magic, or mythical
monsters. Commonly-associated Hallowe'en characters include ghosts, aliens, ghouls, witches, bats,
owls, crows, vultures, haunted houses, pumpkinmen, black cats, spiders, goblins, zombies, mummies,
skeletons, werewolves, and demons. Particularly in America, symbolism is inspired by classic film,
such as fictional figures like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster in the vein of Boris Karloff and
Alfred Hitchcock. Homes are often decorated with these 5._______ around Hallowe'en.
Black and 6.________ are the traditional colours of Hallowe'en. In modern Hallowe'en images and
products, purple, green, and red are also prominent.
The use of these colours is largely a result of advertising for the holiday that dates back for over a
century. They tend to be associated with various parts of Hallowe'en's imagery.
Elements of the 7.___________ season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, are also reflected in
symbols of Halloween.
The carved jack-o'-lantern, lit by a 8.________ inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent
symbols. Although there is a tradition in the British Isles of 9._________ a lantern from a turnip, the
practice was first named and associated with Halloween in North America, where the pumpkin was
available, and much larger and easier to carve. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a
pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their home's doorstep after 10.________.

Which colours can be associated with the following Halloween elements?

1. Monsters, goblins
2. Blood, fire
3. Pumpkins, jack o’lanterns
4. Death, night, witches, bats

Some Halloween jokes have been scrambled. Match the questions with the answers.

1. Q. Why did Dracula take cold medicine?

2. Q. What's it called when a vampire has trouble with his house?
3. Q. What's it like to be kissed by a vampire?
4. Q. Why do vampires scare people?
5. Q. What did the ghost say to the man at the coffee shop?

A. They are bored to death!

B. To stop his coffin.
C. Scream or sugar!
D. It's a pain in the neck.
E. A grave problem.

The lines of a Halloween poem have also been scrambled. Put the lines into the correct order.

Halloween Fright

Give you a scare with their wicked stare.

If you are scared of the dark
Or ghastly creatures lurking in the park
Ghosts and goblins and witches with wild hair
Then you should not go out on Halloween night
If you are scared of the dark
Because most likely it will give you a fright.

And bats are screeching in their caves.

Poltergeists and zombies come up from their graves
I hope your flashlight is beaming.
Watch out or something just might say BOO!
Banshees are screaming.
Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.