Halloween 2012!Traditions in the U.S. and a history of

Halloween

Where does Halloween come from?

Why do we celebrate Halloween?

• The history of Halloween begins about 2000 years ago!

• It begins with an ancient Celtic tradition called Samhain (pronounced sow-in) celebrated on November 1st.

• The Celts were a group of people who lived in the area that is now Ireland and Great Britain.

What was Samhain?

Samhain?• Samhain was a festival that celebrated the end

of summer and the start of winter.

• On the night of October 31st the Celtic people believed ghosts of the dead returned to earth!

• The Celts wore masks and costumes so the ghosts couldn’t recognize them!

Celtic people wearing masks

Samhain becomes Halloween!

Samhain becomes Halloween

• In the 8th century a catholic Pope changed Samhain to All Saints Day or “All Hallows Day.”

• The word “All Hallows” comes from an old English word that meant All Saints.

All Hallows (old English) = All Saints

• The day before was called All Hallows Eve. (“Eve” means the day before)

• It’s easy to see how All Hallows Eve became Halloween.

All Hallows All Hallow’s Eve Halloween!

Halloween and the United States

How did Halloween come to the United States?

• During the 1800's a lot new immigrants came to the U.S.

• Many of these immigrants were Irish, who brought the celebration of Halloween with them.

• The old traditions of the Irish mixed with the new American traditions and the result was Halloween!

A short video of Halloween´s history!

How do Americans celebrate Halloween?

• How Americans celebrate depends on their age.

• As children, we dress up in scary or funny costumes and go to different houses in our neighborhood.

Some examples of costumes in the U.S.

Then we go “trick or treating”

• “Trick or treating” is what we do after we put on our costumes!

• We go around our neighborhood and knock on all the doors.

• We say “trick or treat!?”

Trick or Treat?

What does “trick or treat?” mean?

• A “trick” is an unfriendly game, or prank, one person plays on another person.

• A “treat” can be a piece of candy or anything sweet.

• When kids say “trick or treat?” they are asking for a treat or they’ll play a trick on you!

Kids trick or treating

Candy!!!

How much candy can you get?

• Many children have contests with each other to see who can get the most candy.

• It depends a lot on how good their costume is.

• The better the costume, the more candy someone will give you!

Halloween for teenagers and adults!

• Teenagers and adults also celebrate Halloween in the U.S.

• They dress up in costumes too!

• But they don’t go “trick or treating”

• They go to parties with friends!

Halloween is very popular in the U.S.

• Halloween is a very big business in the U.S.

• Americans spend over 6 billion dollars every year on Halloween. Wow. That’s a lot.

• Over one quarter (25%) of all candy sold is bought on Halloween!

Games!

What games do we play?

• The most common activity on Halloween is pumpkin carving!

• Normally, kids and adults carve scary faces or designs into pumpkins and put a light inside them.

• Then they put the pumpkins outside their door on Halloween night!

Carved pumpkins

Normally, when you see a pumpkin outside a house you know they are

giving out candy!

Bobbing for apples?

• A large tub or bucket is filled with water.

• Apples are put into the water.

• Apples float!

• You have to catch an apple using only your mouth and teeth!

Apple bobbing

Haunted houses!

• Another fun Halloween activity is going to haunted houses.

• These are houses built especially for scaring visitors.

• Most of these houses operate automatically.

• But….

My favorite haunted house is at Universal Studios in California!!

Scary movies!

• Americans love scary movies.

• We often watch scary movies on Halloween night to scare ourselves!

• Some of my favorites are….

Halloween: 1978

Sleepy Hollow: 1999

The end….. BOOO!