Answer questions about Halloween
Activity 1: Halloween’s history
1. It comes from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.
2. Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France.
3. Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
4. Crops.
5. Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
6. They wear costumes that consist of animal heads and skins.
7. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
8. The Roman Empire.
9. The Feraliaa and a day to honour Pomona.
10. The church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honour the dead.
11. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils.
12. All-hallows or All-hallowmas.
13. All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
Apple-bobbing
1. The game is played by filling a large tub with water and putting apples in the water. Apples will float at the surface. Then players have to try to catch one apple with their teeth. Players are not allowed to use their hands, so their hands often are tied behind the back to prevent cheating.
2. When the Romans conquered Britain, they believed the apple tree is a representation of the goddess of fruit trees, Pomona. It is believed that the pentagram was a fertility symbol. When an apple is sliced in half, the seeds form a pentagram-like shape, and this shape meant that the apple could be used to determine marriages during this time of year. Therefore, the apples are used to play the game.
3. Their teeth.
4. Hands.
Trick-or-treating
1. Sweets.
2. Trick or treat?
3. The "trick" is a threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given.
4. Since at least the early 1950s.
5. They will decorate their entrances with artificial spider webs, plastic skeletons and Jack O'Lantern.
6. In Great Britain and Ireland.
7. Souling and guising.
8. The children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes.
9. Skull.