IES Cantabria. Learning English. (Santander): Speaking & culture. Halloween

Tuesday, 24 October 2023

Speaking & culture. Halloween

The origins of a popular festival: All Hallows Eve-Halloween-All Saints Day

A big business in America and overseas...

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1st. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31st they celebrated Samhain, when they believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Following Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, which eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that onHalloween they could guess the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to make Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighbourly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the

turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. These focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a community-centered holiday, where parades and town-wide parties were the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities at this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully dealt with it and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties’ baby boom, parties were moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. This was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, which means that it’s the country’s second largest commercial holiday.

Adapted from http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween#

QUESTIONS

(1) Where did the Celts live 2,000 years ago?
(3) What did the Celts believe happened on the night of October 31st?
(5) What did immigrants help to do in the second half of the nineteenth century?
(7) What became the most common way to celebrate Halloween at the turn of the century?
(9) Why were parties moved to the classrooms or homes by the 1950s?
(12) How much do Americans spend on Halloween annually?
B
(2) What did November 1st mark for the Celts?
(4) When was America flooded with new immigrants?
(6) How did young women believe that they they could guess the name or appearance of their
future husband?
(8) What did Halloween lose by the beginning of the twentieth century?
(10) What was revived between 1920 and 1950?
(11) How could families also prevent tricks being played on them?