HALLOWEEN
ABOUT HALLOWEEN
For thousands of years people have been celebrating holidays and festival at the end of October. The Celts celebrated Samhain, the end of the harvest and beginning of the winter season. The Celts believed that every year on the last day of October, the souls of the dead visited the earth. Around the 8th century, the Christian Church made November 1st, All Saint�s Day to honour all of the saints that didn�t have a special day of their own. Over the years these festivals combined. The mass that was held on All Saint's Day was called Allhallowmass, the night before was known as All Hallows Eve. This became Halloween. When people emigrated to the U.S.A., in the 1800�s, the traditions and celebrations of different cultures merged. Nowadays Halloween is one of the most popular celebrations in the U.S.A.
Halloween is celebrated on 31st October, every year.
Traditions
Children dress up in costumes. Theses costumes can be scary or fun. Popular costumes are witches, ghosts, monsters, and other characters that like to go out at night. Other popular costumes are princess and fairy costumes or favourite heroes or cartoon characters. The reasons for costumes were a disguise to hide from the evil spirits.
The symbol for Halloween is the pumpkin. A pumpkin is carved with a face on front. A candle is lit and set inside the carved pumpkin. This is called the Jack O Lantern. These were set outside of houses to scare away evil spirits.
Children go trick or treating at houses. Wearing costumes, children go from house to house and wish a happy Halloween and ask for a trick or treat.
Bobbing for apples is popular in the U.K.
Halloween Lesson
I like to use flashcards to introduce Halloween vocabulary.
I have played a game where the students pick a card with a name on it such as "Witch"
they dress up as a witch then ask "What am I?"
I usually have students make paper pumpkins and draw faces on them. This can be used to make happy, sad, or scary faces.
Another idea that my students have enjoyed in the past is to make a Jack O lantern mask, using a paper plate, they can draw and cut out shapes to form eyes, nose, and a mouth.
A round of Halloween Bingo goes down well to help students remember the vocabulary they have just learned.
You can find how to make your own bingo cards at DLTK-Bingo Cards.
I Went Trick-or-Treating Game
One student starts by saying, "I went trick-or-treating and I saw a _____" (any item). The next student then continues and adds their own item to the list. Each student remember the list adding their own word each time.
This game can be good for reviewing Halloween vocabulary. Such as, "I went trick-or-treating and I saw a ghost and a witch and Darth Vader....etc."
Three Black Cats Song
(sung to the tune of "Three Blind Mice")
Three black cats, three black cats,
In black hats, in black hats,
They all jumped into the Halloween brew.
They teased the ghosts and the goblins too!
Have you ever seen such a hullabaloo?
On Halloween, on Halloween!
This is a simple Halloween song that I like to use. I got this song from DLTK's crafts for kids.
