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Where did the idea for Halloween come from and when did people start celebrating it? It’s a festival with a long history: it started as a Celtic festival – Samhain – over 2,000 years ago (the Celts lived 2,000 years ago, in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France). Samhain marked the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, and celebrations included dressing up in animal costumes, fortune telling, and lighting huge bonfires.

With the introduction of Christianity to these countries, the celebration evolved into “All Hallows’ Eve”, or Halloween, and the tradition of asking for gifts from neighbours while wearing a costume became a must. This practice was later taken by Irish and Scottish immigrants to America. Although still celebrated in many countries around the world, nowadays Halloween is a much bigger celebration in the United States than in other English- speakingplaces such as the UK.

As well as New Year’s Eve and Thanksgiving, Halloween is one of the biggest holidays on the US festival calendar.

The most famous US Halloween tradition, dating back to the 1920s, is for children to go “trick-or-treating” in their costumes on the night of the 31st October. This involves visiting other houses in the neighbourhood to ask for sweets and other small gifts. This typical American tradition however finds its origin… as far back as the 16th century in Britain and Ireland.

Other popular Halloween traditions in the United States include decorating the front garden with a variety of scary objects, creating haunted house attractions or carving pumpkins to create “jack-o’-lanterns” which are then displayed around the house and gardens to protect from evil spirits.

The carved vegetables are called jacko’-lanterns and are an Irish Halloween tradition. They used to carve turnips but on their arrival in the US, the Irish began carving scary faces in pumpkins which are now the vegetable of choice for creating a bright orange jack-o’lantern.

Now, complete the task.

Les idées à retrouver sont les suivantes, mais la présentation peut évidemment varier : texte ; ligne du temps (point 1) ; tableau à double entrée (point 2).

Version anglaise du corrigé (la version française se trouve dans le guide de l’enseignant).

1. The friends are both right.

Halloween started in Ireland as a Celtic festival (about 2,000 years ago); it evolved into “All Hallow’s Eve” with the introduction of Christianity. This practice was later taken by Irish and Scottish immigrants to America. It’s now one of the biggest festivals in the USA, and it’s bigger in the USA than in the other English-speaking places such as the UK.

2. Traditions which support the fact that Halloween is Irish AND American:

– At the beginning, Celtic celebrations included dressing up in animal costumes. Now in America it’s traditional to wear a costume, most commonly scary costumes.

– At the beginning of Christianity, the tradition of asking for gifts from neighbours while wearing a costume became a must. The most famous US Halloween tradition, dating back to the 1920’s, is for children to go “trick-or-treating” in their costumes on the night of the 31st.

– The carved pumpkins come from an Irish Halloween tradition. It was introduced in the USA by immigrants in the 1920s.