Halloween

The pagans who lived in Britain two thousand years ago celebrated their New Year on 1 November. Then the Christians came and people celebrated Hallowmas, a three-day festival between 31 October and 2 November. 31 October was called All Hallow's Eve and slowly the name changed to Halloween. 

In November, winter is near, and hundreds of years ago people 
thought that bad spirits, like ghosts, came in the winter. They wanted the bad spirits to go away, so they made fires outside and made jack o'lanterns. To do this they took a big autumn vegetable - usually a pumpkin - and cut off the top. They made a big hole inside the pumpkin and cut a face in the side. Then they put a light inside the pumpkin and put the top on again. People still enjoy doing this today. You can see jack o'lanterns, with their bright eyes and mouths, outside at Halloween. 

To keep the bad spirits away people also dressed like witches and ghosts. Children still do this if they go to Halloween parties. People often put up decorations for Halloween parties, and play games. The decorations are usually black (for dark nights and death) and orange (for autumn vegetables). 

One Halloween party game is called 'bobbing for apples'. Many apples fall off the trees in autumn so they are easy to find. Someone puts some apples in a big bowl of water. The apples stay on top of the water. The first player often puts something over their eyes so they cannot see. They must keep their hands behind their back and take an apple out of the water with their teeth. Then the next player tries. It can be very difficult and players usually get very wet!

In Canada and the USA, and in some other English-speaking countries, children go 'trick or treating'. They dress like witches and ghosts, and go, often in a small group, to the houses of people who live near them. When someone answers the door, the children say: 'Trick or treat?' Then the person in the house must decide. Either they give the children a treat - something nice, like fruit or chocolate - or the children play a trick on them. For a trick, the children do something bad like throw an egg or some flour at the house!