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Halloween - English lesson

 Halloween is a yearly festival. Most people celebrate this day on the night of 31 October ( the night before All Saints Day ).

It is the one of the oldest holidays still celebrated and is a contracted form of the phrase All Hallows' Evening, also known as All Saints Day.

It is believed that the history of Halloween stems from a pagan holiday and has its roots in the Celtic Festival of Samhain.

The pagan Celts believed that on that night, the boundary between the world of the living and the dead overlapped.

According to their beliefs, the souls of the dead roamed the streets and villages at night.

The medieval festival of Samhain ( Samhain literally means summer's end ) was the beginning of the Celtic New Year. It was the biggest and most significant holiday.

Today, Halloween is the time of pumpkins, ghosts, monsters and other scary things. Dressing in costumes is one of the most popular Halloween customs.

Children, and also many adults, dress in costumes as witches, ghosts, vampires or other supernatural beings and they go from house to house, asking for treats.

They knock on doors and say : ' trick or treat '.

' Trick or treat ' is a term stemming from the Middle Ages and means - ' give us a treat or we'll pull a prank on you ' . So, people usually give out candy.

   Many people carve Jack - o' - lanterns out of pumpkins. The original Jack O' Lantern was not a pumpkin. He was a man named Jack and was a notorious drunkard and trickster. He was so wicked that neither God or the Devil wanted him.

 To kids, Halloween is seen as one of the best holidays.

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1. When is Halloween celebrated? at the beginning of October1 April31 OctoberI don't know

2. Halloween is a contracted form of the phrase All Hallows EveningDay of the deadGhosts FestivalI don't know.

3. What is Samhain and how does it relate to Halloween? It's the ancient feast of the deadIt's the sun god festivalIt's the feast of modern civilizationI don't know.

4. Samhain festival was popularized as the American New YearCeltic New YearPumpkin New YearI don't know.

5. The Celts believed that everything had a spiritthe dead returned to earththe sun was a god named SamhainI don't know.

6. Who or what returned to earth on October 31? The witchesThe vampiresThe souls of the deadI don't know.

7. Jack - o' - lantern it is a light made from a pumpkinauberginewatermelonI don't know.

8. Why do they say ' trick or treat ' on Halloween? To get lots of candyTo chase the evil spirits awayTo chase the dead offI don't know.

9. The saying ' trick or treats' comes from From the 19th CenturyThe Middle AgesAncient EgyptI don't know.

10. What is the meaning of ' trick or treat ' ? Give us a treat or we'll pull a prank on youKeep smilingGive moneyI don't know.

11. Who was the original Jack O'Lantern? He was a good manwicked manghostI don't know.

12. What do children say when they knock on doors on Halloween? trick or treatjoke or sweetscrack a jokeI don't know.