A typical Halloween Scene:

Typical Halloween pranks: soaping windows, writing on doors with crayons, over-turning, garbage cans, sticking pins into doorbells to keep them ringing, throwing raw eggs, and spraying cream on cars and friends.

The Origins of Halloween Customs:

→ Today's Halloween customs come from what two ancient holidays?

They come from two different sources: an ancient Celtic festival in honour of Samhain, lord of death, and a Roman festival in honour of Pomona, goddess of gardens and orchards.

→ What are the two main themes and colours of Halloween?

The Halloween colours, black and orange, suggest both ideas: death and harvest.

AFTER YOU READ:

I. Getting the Message:

a) Mark each statement true (T) or false (F):

1. In the U.S. today Halloween is an important religious holiday. ÞF

2. Pagan religious (=chủ nghĩa vô thần) had many gods. ÞT

3. Halloween is celebrated by nearly all American children, no matter what their religion. ÞT

4. Some costumes are disguises, but others are not. ÞT

5. A scarecrow is put in a field to scare away people. ÞF

6. Skeletons and ghosts are symbols of a good harvest. ÞF

7. The American mad jack-o'-lanterns from pumpkins. ÞF

8. When children go trick – or – treating, they usually collect a lot of candies. ÞF

b) Name four things American children usually do to celebrate Halloween:

1. wear costumes.

2. carve pumpkins.

3. go trick or treating.

4. bob for apples.

II. Building Your Vocabulary:

a) Complete these sentences:

1. If you give a trick- or- treater a penny, you are stingy. If you give the child 50 cents, you are generous.

2. At Halloween parties or masquerades( = lễ hội hoá trang), some people don't recognize their friends when they are wearing masks over their face.

3. On Halloween, it is an American custom for children to dress up in costumes.

4. The Halloween colors, orange and black, relate to the holiday's two major themes, which are harvest and death.

5. A(n) scarecrow protects a farmer's harvest because it stands in the fields and scares away birds and animals that might otherwise eat seeds or crops.

6. To make a jack – o' – lantern, take the insides ( the pulp and seeds) out of pumpkins and then cut a face into the orange shell.

7. A ghost is the invisible spirit of a dead person.

b) Underline the correct word:

1. (Which/Witch) one of you wants to wear this scary costume?

2. I don't like that bright- red – devil (costume/custom).

3. On Halloween, I wear makeup or a ( mask/ masquerade) to disguise myself.

4. After I take the insides out of this pumpkin, it will be (hallow/hollow).

5. People say a ghost lives in those houses. They say it's (haunted/hunted).

c) Write D for darkness and death and H for harvest.

1. Apple H

2. Ghost D

3. Haunted house D

4. Jack – o' – lantern D and H

5. Owl D

6. Pumpkin H

7. Scarecrow H

8. Skeleton D

IV. Understanding Idioms and Expressions:

1. "Trick or treat; money or cats!" means "give me a treat, or I'll play a trick on you".

2. To play a prank means to trick someone.

3. A jack- o'- lantern has a light in it.

4. When you are bobbing for apples, you can get wet.

5. Scared out of your wits means too scared to think clearly.

6. Scared to death means that someone was very frightened.

7. Telling fortunes means predicting what will happen in the future.

8. Gain access to means gets into.