Halloween is celebrated every year on October 31st. It is one of the world’s oldest holidays, dating back over 2,000 years to the time of the Celts, an ancient group of people who lived in Western Europe. They believed that on the last day of October ghosts visited the living. To keep the ghosts away, people dressed up in frightening costumes and pretended that they were ghosts too.

Nowadays, Halloween is popular all around the world, especially in Britain, Ireland and the USA. On this day, people decorate their houses with jack-o-lanterns, which are lanterns made of pumpkins cut like a human face. Children dress up as ghosts, witches, vampires and skeletons. They visit their neighbours and ask for candy. This tradition is called trick or treating. Later in the evening, people organize Halloween parties for their neighbours and friends. During the parties they play a lot of games – for example, apple bobbing, where players put their hands behind their back and use their teeth to catch apples placed in a large bowl of water.

Glossary

ancient – starożytny

candy – słodycze

to dress up as… – przebrać się za …

a ghost – duch

to keep sb away – tu: zniechęcić kogoś

a lantern – lampion

the living – żyjący ludzie

to pretend - udawać

a pumpkin – dynia

a skeleton – szkielet

a vampire – wampir

a witch – czarownica