Halloween is coming up 500 years ago the

Halloween is coming up.

• ２ 500 years ago, the Celts living in the Great Britain believed that human is mastered by gods. They also believed that Samhain, the death god, would come back to the earthly world with the dead at the night on october 3 l. The Celts built bonfires and fired animals as sacrificial offerings to the death god. Some Celts were dressed in costumes made from animal heads or furs, which was the origin of contemporary Halloween masquerade. The night of the death god was a horrifying time that signified the coming of winter and was the beginning of Halloween eve. Today, the religious meaning of Halloween has been weaken; instead，the holiday expresses man's cherishing memory of Halloween via innovative, everchanging modern masquerade. •

Halloween is a holiday on October 31 st. • Most children dress up in costumes and go "Trick-or-Treating" by walking around to different houses and asking for candy. • Carve the pumpkin. • trick or treat • One of the most popular traditions is making jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins. The first jacko-lanterns were actually cut from turnips. The tradition began with the story of Jack, an evil man who once tricked the devil.

Q&A • When & Where Halloween "begain" ? • A long time ago people in Europe celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of the new year on October 31. They believed that on this day the spirits of the people who died that year could walk the Earth again. People would dress up in costumes and parade around their village making lots of noise. They wanted to scare away the evil ghosts and spirits. Later, Christians in England Ireland took the holiday as their own. They changed it to honor their saints. November 1 became “All Saints Day, ” or “All Hallows Day. ” The night before, October 31, was All Hallows Eve. The name was shortened to Halloween.

What people do to celebrate it ? • On the night of October 31, families decorate their homes with carved pumpkins called jack-o-lanterns. Children dress up like ghosts, monsters, witches and even storybook princesses and famous heroes. They go from house to house in their neighborhood knocking on doors and shouting, “Trick or treat!” to receive candy and sweets.

Is there any meaning of it ? • The Irish made “Jack’s lanterns” out of turnips every Halloween. When they came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were much easier to carve. Today people like to carve scary faces in their jack-olanterns and place then in front of their homes on this very special night. On Halloween, you wouldn’t be caught dead without a jack-o-lantern in front of your home.

• Dear Jason, • Thanks to your letter for asking me to explain you about the Halloween. It is really a great pleasure for me to introduce you all I know about Halloween as follow: • Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat? " The word "trick" refers to a (mostly idle) "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. • The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-ortreating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2).

• • • The taste in Halloween festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, using Burn's poem Halloween as a guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Halloween is out of fashion now. Kelley lived in Lynn, Massachusetts, a town with 4, 500 Irish immigrants, 1, 900 English immigrants, and 700 Scottish immigrants in 1920. In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Halloween customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries". Halloween provided an opportunity for real strenuous fun. No real damage was done except to the temper of some who had to hunt for wagon wheels, gates, wagons, barrels, etc. , much of which decorated the front street. The youthful tormentors were at back door and front demanding edible plunder by the word “trick or treat” to which the inmates gladly responded and sent the robbers away rejoicing. These are what I found in Wiki. Hope it’s helpful for you. Best regards, Margie Howard

Parade Some people will buy costumes or make by themselves. They will dress up as some funny looking role, like Obama, Transformer, etc. Sometimes there will be a parade in daytime.

Trick or Treat Children will have trick or treat house-to-house at about dusk. And some teens will do the same things but just for fun, and sometimes they will held a Halloween party!!

Decorate There will be a lot of pumpkin, special stickers and fake spider silk that be put in ground.

Food They will have many sweet dishes, like pumpkin pie, chocolate or candies!

Halloween By 趙家昇 楊元昊 Yu-kai Huang