新编大学英语 1 Unit 4 背景知识之 Holloween

background knowledge

The introduction od Halloween Halloween is one of the scariest times of the year. People dress in amazing costumes,kids go trick-or-treating, and Jack-o'-lanterns are everywhere. Let me introduce all about it in this special feature!

History of Halloween

Halloween is an ancient tradition that originates from Ireland. Some people think it is an "evil day" because of the scary images associated with it.

Halloween comes around every year on October 31st. But, where did it come from?

The word "Halloween" comes from the Catholic Church. "All Hallows Eve", November 1, "All Hallows Day" (or "All Saints Day") is the day where Catholics pay respect to the saints. But in 500 B. C. in Ireland the day came on October 31st, the official end of summer.

Some people believed that the people who died during the year would come back to earth looking for a body to possess. The Celts thought that the rules of space and time were suspended on that day. To protect themselves the villagers would put out their fires and to make their home undesirable to spirits. Then they would dress up as ghouls, ghosts, goblins and other frightening costumes and parade around the neighborhood to scare away spirits.

It is said that some people would actually burn people that they thought had already been possessed to warn away the spirits. When the Romans took over they took up the Celtic practices, but burned the effigy instead. As time went by and belief in spirits went away Halloween became more of a ceremonial day. So, Halloween is not an evil day. It came from the ancient Celtis new year and from European religious customs.

Halloween Traditions

Want to know about the traditions of Halloween? Many American peole say this is their favorite holiday of the year because there are so many traditions.

Trick-or-treating Jack-o'-lanterns

Wearing costumes Halloween parties

Bobbing for apples Horror movies

Pranks Haunted houses

Trick-or-treating

On Halloween night groups of little kids put on their costumes and go from house to house asking for candy. they usually ring the doorbell and shout, "Trick or treat! Give me something to eat!" When someone answers, it means "give us a treat or we'll play a trick on you." In the past that meant some kind of prank. If you are living in a neighborhood that is likely to have trick-or-treaters coming by, you had better buy lots of candy beforehand.

The tradition of trick-or-treating came from a European tradition calling "souling". Christians used to walk from house to house begging for soul cakes, a special bread made with currants. In return they would offer prayers for the giver's dead relatives.

One of my American friends told me when she was a kid it was always fun to come home and empty out her bag of candy to see what she got. She would eat two or three pieces that night and try to save the rest for the week or so after Halloween.

Wearing costumes

Traditional Halloween costumes include skeletons, witches, vampires, monsters, zombies, ghosts, etc. But, nowadays people have become more and more origial with their costumes. People dress up as

background knowledge

doctors, football players, the President, robots, aliens and more. It seems that there is a new tradition of trying to think of the most origial Halloween costumes.

The tradition of wearing costumes came from the ancient practices of Irish people who wore them to scare away spirits who they thought were trying to come and possess a living person.

My friend Gary said, when he was a kid he would dress up as an army soldier every day. Each year he got more and more items for his costumes at old army surplus stores. He had a helmet, backpack, canteen, rifle, bandoleer, belt, combat boots, and camouflage.

I have seen more carzy costumes in America: a shark, a mustard bottle, and even a box of cereal. Bobbing for apples

This is a tradition that isn't done as often any more. It's game played at Halloween parties where you fill up a big barell of water and float some apples in it. Each person takes turns trying to pick up an apple using only their teeth.

I just heard it. But I haven't played this game at Halloween. It would be fun to have a traditional type of Halloween party though.

Pranks

Sometimes children and young adults use Halloween as an opportunity to play pranks.

Some of those include:

Soaping windows: taking a bar of soap and wiping it all over someone's window so it leaves a white stain.

Samshing pumpkins: destroying other people's houses, cars, at other people.

Egg snatching: taking other kids bags of candy. Not nice!

T. P. ing houses: decorating someone's house with rolls of T. P. (toilet paper).

Prank calls: calling someone's telephone and playing a joke on him.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

Jack-o'-lanterns

To make a jack-o'-lantern you must buy a pumpkin, cut out the top, scrape out the inside, carve a face on it and place a candle inside to it glow. On Halloween you will see these on almost every doorstep if you are in America.

The Jack-o'-lantern custom probably comes form an Irish folklore. There is a story about a man named Jack who tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Once Satan got into the tree he carved a cross into the truck and trapped him there. Jack promised to let the devil out of he would never bother Jack again. The devil gave Jack a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer. The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-o'-lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an wmber. Sometimes I saved the pumpkin seeds, dry them, sprinkle salt, butter and chili power on them and bake them. They are really good.

Halloween parties

When you become too old to trick-or-treat usually you go to a Halloween party. At these parties everyone is dressed up. The host might decorate the house to look like a haunted house. There will be drinks, music and sometimes games.

I love Halloween parties because I always like to see what other people wear. I also like playing the

background knowledge

character of the costume I'm wearing. But, usually I can't think of a good cosume idea until the day AFTER Halloween.

Horror movies

Another tradition for those who decide to stay home is to rent a horror movie. This can be really scary especially with all those monsters and witches walking around outside.

Some of the most famous horror movies include:

Halloween Friday the 13th

Nightmare on Elm Street The EXcorcist

Evil Dead Night of the Living Dead

Hey guys, it's always a good idea to sit next to a cute girl when you watch a horror movie. It's a guarantee she will be holding onto you in the first 10 minutes!

Haunted houses

One of the most fun things to do is to put on a haunted house. But, it takes a lot of work. Recently there have been some really sophisticated haunted houses so there is definitely some competition. At the very least you'll need: scary sounds, weird lights in all the rooms, lots of fake spider webs, tombstones, a scarecrow, and some people to dress up as zombies to scare people coming up to the house.

One of the best haunted house I went to had about 100 Jack-o'-lanterns and a head that slid down the staircase. Also there were three witches on the porch stirring a cauldron of some smoky substance. It was very real looking.

本文来源：https://www.bwwdw.com/article/49km.html