HALLOWEEN: MASK COMPETITION & SOME HISTORY AND FACTS ABOUT IT

Make a mask for Halloween

Here are some ideas…

Skeletons

Witches

Bats

Cats

Pumpkins

Ghosts

Take your mask to the English room

Closing Date: 28 October (Thursday)

Halloween is important in the United States of America, and many people have a party to celebrate it. In the United Kingdom, Halloween is not quite as important but children still celebrate it with a tradition called `Trick or Treat´.

Halloween has Celtic origins. The Celts celebrated the end of summer on 1^st November, and believed spirits and ghosts visited the day before. They dressed as ghosts so that the spirits would not harm them.

It will be Halloween very soon, and to celebrate there is a Mask Competition. Design your own Halloween Mask and the best one will win a prize!

Here are some ideas for your mask: bats, pumpkins, skeletons skulls, …

Good luck for everyone!

Hellen Ullock

Halloween is a very old tradition. It was started in England 2000 years ago by a people called the Celts. They dressed up like ghosts on October 31 because they thought that ghosts visited the living on this day. They believed that mean spirits would not bother them if they wore this disguise.

Today, it is a very popular holiday in the United States. Months before Halloween, people start thinking about their Halloween costumes. Sometime in October, people go to pick out the perfect pumpkin from a pumpkin patch. A couple of days before October 31, people carve their pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns. Some designs are very simple, like a smiling face, while others are more complicated, such as a spider´s web or a haunted house. At night, people put lighted candles inside the Jack-O-Lanterns so that they glow.

On Halloween night, kids dressed up in their costumes walk up and down the street with their families, carrying a basket usually shaped like a pumpkin to collect candy in. The kids knock at each door, and when it opens, they say "Trick-or-Treat!" Then the people inside the home usually give the kids some candy. Sometimes, people give out money, or healthy snacks. Older kids sometimes go out to Halloween parties.

Candy corn is a very traditional Halloween candy. Grocery stores in the United States sell large bags of candy for families to hand out on Halloween. It is a very commercialized holiday.

Definitions:

Costume: Clothes used to dress up as something other than yourself.
"Trick-or-Treat": A phrase kids say on Halloween night when they go door-to-door to collect candy. It is also used as a verb. For example, kids can go trick-or-treating.
Candy corn: Triangle-shaped candy with stripes of orange, yellow and white usually eaten on Halloween.

Pumpkin patch: A pumpkin field where the pumpkins are for sale.
Jack-O-Lantern: A pumpkin with carved-out designs and a lighted candle inside.
Haunted house: A house where ghosts supposedly live.

Questions:

1.) Where was Halloween first celebrated, who celebrated it, and why?

2.) What do people in the U.S. do to prepare for Halloween? What do they do on Halloween night?

3.) What is the difference between a pumpkin and a Jack-O-Lantern?

4.) Have you tried any of these Halloween activities before? Tell about it.

a. Dressing up in a costume

b. Going trick-or-treating

c. Carving pumpkins

d. Visiting a Haunted House

5. Are you doing anything to celebrate Halloween this year? Are you dressing up for Halloween? If not, what costume would you pick if you did dress up?

Text and questions by Jenna Hartsell

Halloween o Noche de Brujas es una fiesta que se celebra en Estados Unidos en la noche del 31 de octubre. Tiene origen en la festividad celta del Samhain y coincide con la festividad cristiana del Día de todos los santos.

Aunque como hemos dicho antes se celebre en EE.UU, se ha extendido por todo el mundo, celebrándose en países europeos como España.

Las actividades típicas de Halloween son el típico estadounidense truco o trato y las fiestas de disfraces, además de las hogueras, la visita a casas encantadas o cementerios, las bromas, las lecturas de historias de miedo y las fiestas de “pijama” con películas de terror por la noche.

Blanca Sánchez  e Irene Nieto