Well, hello! Hey, and welcome to this episode of the Learn Every Day English Podcast – Your
Road to English Proficiency. You've come to the right place to improve your listening
comprehension skills and mastery of the English language.
Hi, my name is Gary and I will be your host today. I am a native English speaker born
and raised in the United States and a retired engineer living in a small Texas town. I am
also a language learner like you, so I know what it is like to learn a new and different
language as I am studying Spanish. So now, let's jump right in to today's episode.
Hi, well hello listeners and welcome to Episode 5 of the Learn Every Day English Podcast.
I am glad to have you with me and again, my name is Gary. In this episode, we are going to talk about
something I hope you will find very interesting and that subject is Halloween in the United States.
Hey, but before we get started, I want to remind you that you can follow me at my webpage. Just
go to www.learneverydayenglish.com and you can find out what we're doing there and at the webpage,
you can find links to and listen to all the podcasts directly from the webpage. And for
this podcast specifically, don't worry about trying to copy or write down information. Go
to the podcast resources page on the Learn Every Day English website and click that link
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Every Day English YouTube channel where you can watch many interesting and engaging videos to
practice your listening comprehension and improve your English skills. So now, without further ado,
let's jump right in to today's episode. Well, in today's episode, we're going to talk about the
celebration called Halloween. That is a very popular celebration here in the United States.
And one fact, or we can say tidbit of information, which is tidbit is just like a little fact or a
little bit of something. Did you know that one quarter of all the candy sold annually or every
year in the United States is purchased for Halloween? Hmm, that's pretty interesting. There
may be some new vocabulary words here in this episode that you may not know. So on the transcript
that you can download from the Learn Every Day English webpage under the podcast resources page,
the last page is a vocabulary list. And I will as I go through today's episode, if there are some
words I think that you may not know or might find difficult, I may go ahead and give you a brief
explanation of what those words mean. But on the transcript, those words will be highlighted
and underlined. And there will be a vocabulary list that you can refer to as you listen to
the podcast. So we'll start right in. What is Halloween? Well, it is a celebration that is
celebrated in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which is where it actually
first began. And I think there are other countries around the world that have some sort of Halloween
celebrations as well. But October 31st marks the observation of Halloween, which is the evening
before All Hallows Day or All Saints Day, which is on November 1st. So on Halloween, people dress up
in all kinds or types of costumes. They have Halloween parties, they visit haunted houses,
and trick-or-treaters walk up and down the streets looking for candy. So a haunted house is like an
amusement attraction, we say in English, which is actually just a building, or it could be a series
of rooms that are decorated to frighten or scare people as they walk through the attraction.
And what are trick-or-treaters? On Halloween, there's a practice called trick-or-treat,
where the children wear costumes and they walk from door to door or go house to house in a
neighborhood. When they ring the doorbell or knock on the door and the owner opens the door,
the children say, trick-or-treat, which means, hey, give me a treat, which can be, and usually is,
candy. Or if not, I will play a trick on you. So that's what the word trick-or-treat means.
So the kids that go around on Halloween asking for candy are called trick-or-treaters.
So that's pretty interesting. Hope that's something that you didn't know.
What are Halloween's origin? What is the origin of Halloween? Halloween actually began as a Celtic
celebration. So most scholars agree that Halloween, as we know it today, started about 2,000 years ago
when Celtic people in Europe, you know, they celebrated the end of the harvest, or the crops
that were ready, and the start of a new year in a festival called Samhain. And Samhain is sometimes
also regarded as the Celtic New Year. So according to Celtic tradition, on the eve of Samhain,
the doorway between the world of the living and the door of the dead became open. And because of
this, the spirits of people who had died during the previous year could cross over. So the Celts
believed the dead could appear and communicate with the living during this period. That's kind
of interesting. And sometimes they lit bonfires. So what is a bonfire? A bonfire is just a large,
open fire that is used as part of a celebration. It's a kind of specific type of fire. Or they
carved lanterns out of vegetables such as squash to light the way for the good spirits.
And in the United States, those lanterns would be carved out of pumpkins, also known as jackal
lanterns. And we will talk about this specifically in more detail a little bit later in the episode.
And finally, there are also some accounts or stories of people making animal sacrifices to
Celtic deities. And a deity is just another word for a god. And they were even dressed in
costumes made of animal hides. And that's just another word for animal skins that are treated
for human use. And they dressed in these animal hides to fool the evil spirits. So these days,
or today, Samhain is celebrated more as a harvest festival, but still uses many of the same rituals
as found in the past. Next, we're going to talk about the Christian influence on Halloween.
So as Christianity spread throughout Europe, the Catholic Church tried to replace the old
Samhain festival with its own traditions. So, for example, the church declared All Saints Day
on November 1st. And this celebration was also known as All Hallows Day.
October 31st, the day before All Hallows Day, became to be called All Hallows Eve.
And this was later shortened to Halloween. So that's where we get the name Halloween from.
And on Halloween, as I've mentioned before, children, and even today, adults wear costumes,
and the children go trick or treating. Do you remember what that was? So Halloween costumes
probably began with the Celts, who dressed up like animals at the Samhain bonfires.
In medieval England, people began to dress up like supernatural beings in the hope of frightening
them away. And many people walked through town wearing costumes of fairies, witches, and ghosts.
This practice was called mumming, and people would often give the mummers, which are the people that
dressed up and went about mumming, they would give mummers food to eat and something to drink.
But today, this attraction or this tradition turned into trick or treat, where adults give
children candy, who if they get the treat, which is a candy, will hopefully not perform any malicious
tricks. And malicious is just something that is showing a desire to cause harm to somebody.
So malicious tricks are like harmful tricks. Next, we're going to talk about Halloween as
it evolved in the United States, and it started to take off, as we say in English, or to become
more popular in the 1800s. And why was that? Well, European immigrants brought their rituals
and customs with them to the United States. And in the mid-1800s, nearly 2 million Irish immigrants
who were fleeing the potato famine helped shape Halloween into an even more widely celebrated
event. And a famine is just an event where there is a lack of food to eat. So the Irish popularized
the celebration nationally with their new superstitions and customs, like the jack-o-lantern.
And did you know that jack-o-lanterns used to be carved out of turnips, potatoes, and beets?
Whereas today, they are carved out of pumpkins. And while kids didn't trick or treat like they
do today, they did play plenty of pranks. And a prank is just a trick that is intended to be
amusing and often to make someone look foolish. So the kids played plenty of pranks in the
tradition of mischief making. And mischief is just playful misbehavior or troublemaking,
especially in children. I mentioned the word jack-o-lantern, and I'm going to talk about that
a little bit later. But a jack-o-lantern is just a pumpkin that is carved into a specific type of
thing. You might carve a face or design into a pumpkin. So that is called a jack-o-lantern.
And you'll put a candle or light inside the pumpkin to illuminate it or light it up. So
that is what a jack-o-lantern is. But Halloween eventually became a community, or sometimes we
say a communal celebration. And by the 1900s, the focus of Halloween had shifted or moved or caused
to be moved. So that's what shift means. The focus shifted from a religious holiday to a more
communal or community type of celebration. As a reference to history, there was a practice called
geising, which was practiced and dated back to the Middle Ages when the poor would go around asking
for food or money. So this was borrowed from the English and Irish traditions, and children adopted
this practice of geising, and would dress up in costumes going door to door asking for food or
money during Halloween. But nowadays, instead parties were held and had a more festive atmosphere
with colorful costumes. The frightening and superstitious aspects of Halloween had diminished
or become less or decreased or lessened somewhat. And Halloween in the United States, and sometimes
we just say the U.S. instead of United States, was slowly getting rid of, which means to remove
something that you don't want anymore. So the U.S. was slowly getting rid of some of the old European
traditions favoring more light-hearted celebrations. So what is exactly trick or treat?
So despite the good nature of some people, Halloween pranks. Do you remember what a prank is?
A trick that is intended to be amusing and often to make someone look foolish?
And mischief. Do you remember mischief, playful behavior or misbehavior or troublemaking,
especially in children? So pranks and mischief had become a huge problem here in the United States
in the 1920s and the 1930s, mostly because the pranks often turned into vandalism,
property damage and even physical assaults. So vandalism is you are causing harm or damage to
some type of thing, building, property or car. The bad kids and even organizations use the Halloween
time as an excuse to engage in types of criminal activity. So schools and communities did the best
they could to prevent vandalism by encouraging the trick or treat concept. There's a very popular
organization here in the United States called the Boy Scouts, although they have received
bad publicity lately because of some bad things that have happened in the organization. But back
then they were very popular organization and the Boy Scouts got into the act of organizing safe
events for children like school carnivals and local neighborhood trick or treat outings for
children, hoping that this would make troublemakers go away. So a troublemaker is just a person that
creates or causes trouble or makes trouble. But regardless, by the late 1930s, vandalism was
decreasing as more and more children chose to participate in trick or treat instead of
vandalizing. The earliest known print of the words trick or treat did not occur until 1934
when a Portland Oregon newspaper ran an article about Halloween pranks kept local police officers
on their toes. So to keep on your toes or keep someone on their toes is to cause someone to be
alert and or prepared to deal with the problem. There would be sporadic and sporadic means
something that happens occasionally or at irregular intervals. So there would be sporadic instances
of the phrase trick or treat used in the media during the 1930s and eventually making its way
onto Halloween cards. But the practice that we see today where children dress in costume going
house to house saying trick or treat did not really come about until the mid 1940s.
So now you might be asking, hey, when was the first Halloween celebration in the United States?
Well, there's a city called Anoka in the state of Minnesota, and it is called the Halloween
Capital of the World and was the first city in the United States to officially hold a Halloween
celebration in an effort to prevent kids from playing pranks. Do you remember playing pranks
means? Which means to carry out tricks, deceptions, or practical jokes on someone. But they would
play pranks like tipping over outhouses and letting cows loose to run around Main Street.
So to tip over means to fall over or to cause something to fall over. So when you tip over
something, you can push something so that it falls over. But they would tip over outhouses.
And an outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building, which contains or covers
a toilet or a place where you can go and use the bathroom. And they would let cows loose to run
around on Main Street too. So to let loose means to free or to release from something. But the town
also organized a parade and spent the weeks prior planning and making costumes. Treats of popcorn,
peanuts, and candy to any children who participated in the parade were made available,
followed by a huge bonfire in the town square. The event grew over time and has been held every
year since 1920, except the years 1942 and 1943 when the festivities were cancelled due to World
War II. But these days Enoka holds elaborate Halloween festivals with a parade, carnivals,
costume contests, house decorating, and other community celebrations living up to its self-proclaimed
title of Halloween Capital of the World. So finally, what is Halloween like
in the USA today or in modern USA? Well, the popularity of Halloween has increased greatly
year after year. Television movies and other media outlets have helped Halloween grow into the USA's
second largest commercial holiday behind that of Christmas. I guess I bet you didn't know that,
and I found that pretty interesting. Watching horror movies and visiting haunted houses are
popular modern ways to celebrate the evening, and that's what people do today. A horror movie
is a movie in which it is very frightening, scary, or unnatural and highlights these
types of things, with the purpose oftentimes to scare the viewer. Sometimes you might hear a
terror movie, but horror movie is the most common way to describe these types of movies.
Many people create or make jack-o'-lanterns which are made by carving faces or designs
into a pumpkin, then placing a candle or light inside the pumpkin to light up the carving.
But the biggest challenge facing today's 38 million trick-or-treaters is staying safe in
a world where the criminal types use Halloween as an excuse to act on deviant behavior.
And deviant means it is used to describe a person or behavior that is not usual and is
generally considered to be unacceptable. Many school and local communities will organize
trick-or-treating in shopping malls, especially in neighborhoods where gang activity is present
or prevalent. Prevalent means that it is very common or occurs a lot, but trick-or-treating
skyrocketed and skyrocket means to cause or rise or increase suddenly and very rapidly or to go up
very quickly. So trick-or-treating skyrocketed in popularity by the 1950s when Halloween became
a true national event. So today over 179 million people celebrate the holiday and spend about
9.1 billion dollars, again 9.1 billion dollars, on Halloween every year according to the National
Retail Federation. But people in the United States love Halloween wholeheartedly, and
wholeheartedly means completely and sincerely devoted, determined, or enthusiastic about
something or with all of one's heart. So I can say I wholeheartedly produce these Learn Every Day
English podcasts because it is something that I love and really like to do. But people in the
wholeheartedly, but the day actually isn't an official holiday here in the U.S.
Despite all of the festivities and parties and trick-or-treating that happen in the evening,
Halloween is still a working day and most businesses and banks have to follow their regular
working hours. I'll close by telling you my experience of Halloween. I was born in 1962,
so I may be a little bit older than a lot of you. I'm 58 years old now, but I remember when I was a
kid, Halloween was a very fun time. I have a twin brother, so we would dress up in costumes.
We would usually have a different costume every year and kids would start off celebrating
Halloween. We would trick-or-treat or go door-to-door and ask for and receive candy. And we'd come home
with a big paper bag full of candy that we would eat throughout the next coming weeks because my
mother wouldn't let us eat all the candy at one time. But we would have a costume or a different
costume every year. And we did that probably when we were maybe like started four or five years old
and maybe until we were about 10, 11 years old. And I remember it just being a very fun time.
So I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Learn Every Day English podcast about Halloween
in the United States and that you learn something new, learn something interesting,
maybe learn some new vocabulary words. And again, like I say, don't try to write down or remember
everything that was talked about. You can download the transcript or notes from this episode if you
just go to the Learn Every Day English webpage, then click on the link that will take you to the
podcast resource page. Go to episode five and there you will find the transcript for today's
episode that you can download and follow along. So I would love to hear from you and what you
thought of this episode. Hey, if you have any questions for me and or if you have any suggestions
for specific topics you would like me to discuss on this program, hey, just let me know. Again,
go to the Learn Every Day English homepage and at the bottom there will be a contact form that you
can fill out and let me know your comments there. Well, I think that's it for now and be sure to
check out our upcoming podcasts. And thanks for listening and goodbye.
