HALLOWEEN HISTORY

1) How much do you know about Halloween? Look at the pictures and get some ideas
for the class discussion.

2) Do you know the meaning of…?

1. Bonfire a. holy or saintly

2. Bobbing the apples b. A world believed to exist for those in the afterlife

3. Prankster c. an ancient Celtic festival held on Nov. 1 to mark the beginning of a new year.

4. Mass d. A large fire built outdoors, as for signaling or in celebration of an event

5. To trash e. One who plays tricks or pranks

6. Harvest season f. The act or process of gathering a crop

7. Samhain g. To ruin something. To mess around

8. Hallow h. To take apples with your mouth, without using your hands

9. Afterworld i. Public celebration of the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic Church

10. Frown on j. To regard something with disapproval or distaste

11.To bring into the fold k. to absorb, to include, to incorporate

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3) Listen and watch for the gist

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-VRAemIvbI (National Geographic)

4) Listen for a second time and try to fill in the gaps with the words from the box
below:

bobbing / trick-or-treating / life / earth / harvest / harmless / extortion / grew / Bonfire

pumpkins / dead / pranks / veil / trash / occult / honor / immigrants / hooliganism /
Church / afterworld / customs / mass / gradually / celebrated / removing / spread

From communion to the dead to _________ and _________, Halloween is a patchwork

holiday, stitched together with cultural, religious and _________ traditions that span

centuries. It all began with the Celts, a people whose culture had ________ across

Europe, more than 2,000 years ago. October 31 was the day they __________ the end of

the ___________ season, in a festival called “Samhain”. That night also marked the Celtic

New Year, it was considered a time “between years”, a magical time when the ghosts of the

_________ watched the _______. “It was the time when the ________ between death

and ______ was supposed to be at its thinnest”.

On “Samhain”, the villagers gathered and lit huge _______ to drive the dead back to the

spirit world and keep them away from the living. But, as the Catholic Church’s influence

_______ in Europe, it frowned on the pagan rituals like “Samhain”. In the 7th Century, the

Vatican began to merge it with the Church Sanctum holiday, so November 1 was designated

“All Saints’ Day!, to _______ martyrs and the deceased faithful.

Both of these holidays had to do with the _________, and about survival after death. It

was a calculated move on the part of the __________, to bring more people into the fold.

All Saints’ Day was known then as “Hallowmas”. “Hallow” means “holy” “saintly”, so the

translation is –roughly- “__________ of the Saints”. The night before October 31 was

“All Hallows’ Eve”, which ___________morphed into “Halloween”.

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The holiday came to America with the wave of Irish ___________ during the potato

famine of the 1840’s. They brought several of their holiday _________ with them,

including “___________ for apples”, and playing tricks on neighbors, like __________

gates from the front of houses. The young pranksters were masked, so they wouldn’t be

recognized. But over the years, the tradition of __________ tricks grew into outright

vandalism.

“Back in the 1930’s, it really became a dangerous holiday, and there was such

____________ and vandalism. Trick-or-treating was originally an ____________deal:

Give us candy or we will __________ your house.

Store keepers and neighbors began giving treats or bribes to stop the tricks, and children

were encouraged to travel door to door for treats, as an alternative to trouble-making. By

the late thirties, _______________ became a holiday greeting.

5) Answer the questions.

a) Why is it Halloween considered as a patchwork holiday?

b) What was Samhain about? Why did the Celtics celebrate it?

c) Why did the Catholic Church start celebrating All Saints’ Day?

d) How were some of the Halloween traditions introduced in America?

e) What happened in the 1930’s?

6) Make up a Halloween story using, at least, six of the following words below:

HARVEST to go TRICK-OR-TREATING BONFIRE PRANKSTERS

to CELEBRATE SAMHAIN HOOLIGANISM FAMINE MASS

CENTURY to SCARE to BELIEVE IN THE AFTERWORLD

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