1. English Club 10-30-2011
Happy Halloween!!!
One quarter of all the candy sold annually
in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.

2. Estimating - Guessing
• Estimate - an approximate number or
quantity of something
• An estimate is not exact, it is a guess.
• Phrases for guessing:
– I think that …
– There are about…
– My guess is…
– Maybe there are…
– There are approximately…

3. Introductions
• Name
• Guess the number of sunflower seeds in the jar.
– I think that …
– There are about…
– My guess is…
– Maybe there are…
– There are approximately…
• Which is scarier vampires or witches?

4. There are 1066
sunflower seeds
in the jar.

5. Halloween History
• Halloween dates back to the Celtic festival of
Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
• The Celts lived 2,000 years ago in Ireland and
England, celebrated the new year on November
1.
• November 1st was the end of summer and the
beginning of the winter.
• Celts believed that on the night before the new
year that ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

6. Halloween History
• Celts built huge fires and made sacrifices
to their gods.
• The Celts would wear costumes made of
animal heads and skins.
• In the eighth century, the Pope made
November 1 a day to honor saints. The
evening before was known as All Hallows’
Eve and later Halloween.

7. Pumpkins and Halloween
• Making jack-o'-lanterns - carved pumpkins - comes
from the custom of carving turnips into lanterns as
a way of remembering the dead.
• The turnip was used in Ireland and Scotland during
Halloween.
• Immigrants to North America used pumpkins
because they were bigger and easier to carve into
jack-o’-lanterns.
• Now carved pumpkins are a symbol of Halloween.

8. Trick-or-treating
• Trick-or-treating is when children go in costume
from house to house, asking for treats.
• The custom started in Scotland where children
perform “trick” to earn threat treat.
• They would sing songs or tell a ghost stories to
earn treats.
• Shakespeare mentions the trick-or-treating in one
of his plays - “…whimpering or whining like a
beggar at Hallowmas.”

9. Costumes - Disguises
• Dressing up in costumes was common in Scotland
at Halloween by the late 19th century.
• Costuming became popular for Halloween parties
in the US in the early 20th century - for adults and
children.
• Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the
1930s when trick-or-treating was becoming
popular in the United States.

10. Halloween Superstitions
• Superstitions - The belief in something not
proven to be true.
• Most Halloween superstitions are about
marriage and finding love.
• In 18th-century Ireland, a cook would bury a
ring in mashed potatoes on Halloween night.
The person who found the ring would find
true love.

11. US and Halloween
• Today, Americans spend an estimated
$6 billion (48 billion Ukrainian $)
annually on Halloween, making it the
US’s second largest holiday.