English Club 10-30-2011

Happy Halloween!!!

One quarter of all the candy sold annually

in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.

Estimating - Guessing

• Estimate - an approximate number or

quantity of something

• An estimate is not exact, it is a guess.

• Phrases for guessing:

– I think that …

– There are about…

– My guess is…

– Maybe there are…

– There are approximately…

Introductions

• Name

• Guess the number of sunflower seeds in the jar.

– I think that …

– There are about…

– My guess is…

– Maybe there are…

– There are approximately…

• Which is scarier vampires or witches?

There are 1066

sunflower seeds

in the jar.

Halloween History

• Halloween dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

• The Celts lived 2,000 years ago in Ireland and England, celebrated the new year on November 1.

• November 1st was the end of summer and the beginning of the winter.

• Celts believed that on the night before the new year that ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

Halloween History

• Celts built huge fires and made sacrifices to their gods.

• The Celts would wear costumes made of animal heads and skins.

• In the eighth century, the Pope made November 1 a day to honor saints. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween.

Pumpkins and Halloween

• Making jack-o'-lanterns - carved pumpkins - comes

from the custom of carving turnips into lanterns as

a way of remembering the dead.

• The turnip was used in Ireland and Scotland during

Halloween.

• Immigrants to North America used pumpkins

because they were bigger and easier to carve into

jack-o’-lanterns.

• Now carved pumpkins are a symbol of Halloween.

Trick-or-treating

• Trick-or-treating is when children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats.

• The custom started in Scotland where children perform “trick” to earn threat treat.

• They would sing songs or tell a ghost stories to earn treats.

• Shakespeare mentions the trick-or-treating in one of his plays - “…whimpering or whining like a beggar at Hallowmas.”

Costumes - Disguises

• Dressing up in costumes was common in Scotland

at Halloween by the late 19th century.

• Costuming became popular for Halloween parties

in the US in the early 20th century - for adults and

children.

• Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the

1930s when trick-or-treating was becoming

popular in the United States.

Halloween Superstitions

• Superstitions - The belief in something not proven to be true.

• Most Halloween superstitions are about marriage and finding love.

• In 18th-century Ireland, a cook would bury a ring in mashed potatoes on Halloween night. The person who found the ring would find true love.

US and Halloween

• Today, Americans spend an estimated

$6 billion (48 billion Ukrainian $)

annually on Halloween, making it the

US’s second largest holiday.