WHAT  IS  IT ?

The thirtieth of October (31^st October) is Halloween Day. Halloween is the day when people scare away bad spirits by dressing up with a creepy and spooky look.

WHERE  DOES  THE  NAME  COME  FROM?

In the 8^th Century, the Catholic Church declared 1^st November to be All Saints’ Day. This is what we really celebrate in Spain. The church calendar had specific days honouring saints already. The 1^st of November was picked to be the day to honour all saints who didn’t have a day named in their honour.

The mass that the Catholic Church celebrated on 1^st November, was called ‘All-hallow-mass’. This meant ‘mass of all the hallowed (saintly people)’. It was commonly called ‘All Hallows’ Day’. So the night before, became known as ‘All-hallows-eve’= ‘All-hallows-evening’. It was then shortened to what we now call ‘Halloween’.

WHEN  AND  WHERE  DOES  THIS  TRADITION  COME FROM?

Many hundreds of years ago, a people called the Celts, lived in Europe. They believed that the souls of the dead visited Earth on the last day of October. They had a festival in honour of these souls of the dead.

Later, the Roman Empire conquered the Celts and took over some of their beliefs as well. This included Halloween but the Romans combined it with their own festivals. When the Romans spread across a great part of the world, the idea that the souls of the dead visited Earth on the last day of October spread far too.

Finally, emigrants brought their own traditions to the United States and to other Western countries.

WHY  DO  PEOPLE  DRESS  UP?

All Hallows Evening was a day for bad spirits to roam free. People dress up as ghost, goblins, vampires and other scary creatures, with the most creepy and spooky aspect, to scare away the spirits of the dead who were roaming the Earth on All Hallows’ Eve.

It’s also a tradition for children to go from house to house asking ‘Trick or treat?’ ‘Treat’ means ‘I won’t scare you if you give me some sweets’. If there’s not ‘treat’, the children will frighten you. Besides, to feel safe, people began to put lanterns in their windows and in front of their doors to scare away bad spirits.

They made lanterns out of carved pumpkins. People also carried food to the edge of town and left it there, hoping the spirits would eat that food and not attack the village.

THE  END

by Lucía García, Esther González and Yolanda Llamazares Y6A

USEFUL VOCABULARY

f a q: frequently asked questions.

creepy: adj; scaring, terrifying.

spooky: adj; sinister, weird, mysterious.

to pick: verb; to choose, to select.

mass: noun; Eucharist, communion.

to shorten: verb; to make shorter.

soul: noun; spirit.

belief: noun; a strong feeling that something exists or is true.

to spread: verb; to extend.

to roam: verb; to walk or travel around an area without any definite direction.

goblin: adj; a ugly creature that likes to trick people or cause trouble.

to frighten: verb; to make somebody feel afraid or scared.

to carve: verb; to sculpt.