Halloween

In the USA, Halloween is a popular festival. It’s on 31st October, and adults and teenagers often go to fancy dress parties. The theme of these parties is usually horror or the supernatural. Restaurants and clubs often have special events too: they prepare food and drink with a Halloween theme, show horror films or invite gothic rock bands to play.​

​fancy dress (n): the special clothes that you wear for a party where everyone dresses as a particular type of character or thing.

​theme (n): topic or idea

​supernatural (a): magical, not part of the normal world

​Gothic rock (n): a kind of rock music

Children often go trick or treating. They wear scary costumes and visit friends and neighbors asking for sweets and chocolate. They also make Halloween lanterns with candles inside and they play traditional games. The festival comes just after the apple harvest, so the games often use apples.​

​costumes (n): clothes for a show or a fancy dress party.

​lantern (n): a light inside a container that has a handle for holding it or hanging it up, or the container itself

​candle (n): the thing gives light when it burns

​harvest (n): the time of year when crops are cut and collected from the field

​There are a lot of different beliefs about Halloween. For example, some people think that the candle in a Halloween lantern keeps evil away. If the candle goes out suddenly, a spirit is in the room. And if 31st October is your birthday, that means you can see and talk to spirits!

​belief (n): something that you believe

​evil (n): something that is very bad or wrong

​spirit (n): a ghost that you can't see

Other countries have similar festivals at the same time of the year. For example, people in Mexico celebrate a festival called the Day of the Dead on 2nd November. Families go to the local graveyard to visit their dead relatives and they often have picnics there. In some parts of Mexico, they stay there all night!​

​similar (a): looking or being almost

​graveyard (n): a place for burying the dead

​* bury (v): to put a dead body into the ground

​relatives (n): a member of your family

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