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Note: I tried not to copy and paste anything. Halloween Project. By Martín de la Rosa (4ºA). The tale of Jack O´Lantern.
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Note: I tried not to copy and paste anything Halloween Project By Martín de la Rosa (4ºA)
The tale of Jack O´Lantern -The original tale of Jack O´Lantern comes from Ireland. In this story, the protagonist is a miserable, old drunk whose name is Stingy Jack. As the story progresses, Jack tricks the Devil, and the old man forced Lucifer to promise him not to take his soul once he passed away. Many years after that incident, Jack died. When he arrived to the Heaven´s Gate, he was told that his life had been completely worthless and that he couldn´t access Heaven. Then, he was sent to Hell, where he ran into the Devil. Beelzebub decided to keep his promise, and he didn´t allow Jack to enter Hell. At the end, he didn´t have a resting place, so he endlessly roamed the Earth. He always carried a turnip which contained an ember from Hell. The Devil = Lucifer, Beelzebub At first, the tradition was to use turnips. In the 19th century, a couple of waves of Irish immigrants came to America. It was then when they realised that pumpkins were easier to carve and bigger than turnips, so that´s why we currently use pumpkins to symbolize Halloween.
Traditions and customs Trickortreat? -On Halloween, children use to dress up of scary beings: ghosts, witches, wizards… They go from house to house and they ask the following question: Trick or treat? If the person who is being asked chooses treat, he or she has to give the children candy. Otherwise, the children would scary the aforementioned person. And guess what? There´s a really famous organization that is obtaining profit from this tradition: UNICEF (United Nations Children´s Fund), which distributes small orange boxes to trick-or-treaters (children who practise trick-or-treatening). These children solicit donations instead of candy from the houses they visit. UNICEF has obtained over US $188 million worldwide using this technique. Halloweenfood -One of the many symbols of Halloween is the apple. Casually, the end of October is when people collect apples from the annual apple harvest, so both children and adults eat apples on Halloween. Moreover, there´s a sweet called candy apple (also known as toffee apples outside America) which is a whole apple covered in a sugar coating. These were really popular during the 1960s and the 1970s. In fact, hospitals offered free X-rays to detect foreign objects in these apples because news reported about candy apples given to children spread hysteria.
Superstitions Ifyou place a candleinside a pumpkinonHalloween, evilspiritswon´tgetnearyou. If a candlegoesout, itisbelievedthat a ghostisinsidetheroom. Ifyougazeintotheflame of a candle, you´llseethefuture. If a girlpassesby a fountainwhilecarrying a lamp, shewillseeherfuturehusband in thereflection. Do notturnaroundifyouhearfootstepsbehindyou. ItmaybeDeathhimself! Ifyourbodycasts a headlessshadow, you´ll die in thecourse of thenextyear. Ifyoufind a batflyingaroundyourhouse, you´ll die again. A personbornonHalloween can see and talktospirits. Knockingonwoodkeepsbadluckaway. Ifyousee a spider onHalloween… No. Youwon´t die. It´sjustthatthe spider couldbethespirit of a deadlovedonewhoiswatchingyou. Putyourclothesoninsideout and walkbackwardsonHalloweentomeet a witch, and then, you´ll die forthethird time becauseshecastsanspellonyou (joking). In Britain, peopleusedtobelievethattheDevil (alsoknown as Lucifer orBeelzebub) was a nut-gatherer. I don´tknowwhy.
Vocabulary ‘boutHalloween Jack O´Lantern: A carvedpumpkincontaining a candle. Itusually has a face (Can´tbetranslatedintoSpanish) Soul: Theessence of a living being (Spanish = Alma) Evilspirit: Soulsthat come fromdiabolicalbeings (Spanish = Espíritu maligno, malvado) Ghost: Thespirit of a deadbeing (Spanish = Fantasma) Haunted: Inhabitedbyghosts (Spanish = Encantado) Monster: Animaginarycreaturewhosephysicalfeatures are uncommon and sometimesdisgusting (Spanish = Monstruo) Mummy: A corpsepreservedbyembalming, althoughweusuallyconceivethem as peoplewrapped up in whitepaper (Spanish = Momia) Potion: A liquidwithmagicproperties (Spanish = Poción) Bat: Theonlymammalthat can fly (Spanish = Murciélago) Scary: Frightening, creepy, spooky, eerie, dreadful… (Spanish = Que da miedo) Spell: Thethingthewitchescast (Spanish = Hechizo) Vampire: A legendarybeingwhosefavourite hobby istosuckoutpeople´sblood (Spanish = Vampiro) Warlock: Sorcerer (Spanish = Hechicero) Witch: A womanwho can performoccultmagic (Spanish = Bruja) Zombie: A supernaturalforcethat can control a corpse, albeitwhenwethinkabout a zombie, we imagine thecorpseitself, notthesupernaturalforce (Spanish = Zombi)
CuriositiesaboutHalloween ItwasoriginallycalledSamhain and itmeanssummer´send. Both animal and humansacrificesweremadeduringSamhain. Peopleworecustomesmadewith animal skins and they pretended tobeevilspirits. Theyalsojumpedthrough a bonfire and dancedaroundit. In fact, themaskswereusedwhenever a natural disasterhappenedwiththewilltoscaretheevilspirits. TheCeltsputfood and candlestokeepthespiritsawayfromtheirhouses. Itwas similar toourtrick and treat: Food in exchange of notfrightneningthemortalswiththeirpresence. Nowadays, wecallitHalloween, whichis a contraction of All-Hallows-Eve (eve = evening) A hallowissomebodyorsomethingsacred, like a Saint, therelics of theSaintsortheshrineswheretherelics are kept. AllSaints´ Day (November 1st) isalsoknown as Hallowmasbecauseit´sthedayafterHalloween. In somecultures, childrendemandmoneyinstead of candywhentheyaskTrickorTreat? In Mexico, childrenask ¿me da mi calaverita? (Can yougive me my littleskull?) A calaverita is a smallskullmade of sugaror chocolate. In Quebec (Canada) childrensimplysayHalloweeninstead of trickortreat. Thetermtrickortreatexistssince 1927. CrimestadisticsusuallyincreaseonHalloween.
ScaryStories Theweirdeststomachache -YeterYildrim, a 15 yearoldTurkishgirl, becamefamousbecause of her abdominal pain. Shewas a commongirl, butthen, shestartedtosufferunexplainablestomachachesthatlastedfor more thanfiveyears. Herfamilyfinallytookhertothe hospital, whereshewas x-rayed. Theresultswereunbelievable: therewerethreesnakes living insideherstomach. Apparently, sheunconsciouslyswallowedthem as eggs. Thetypicalstoryabout a murder and a ghost -Susan and Nedweredrivingthrough a woodedsection of highway. Itwas a dark and stormynight. We´dbetter stop, saidSusan. Nedsteppedonthebrake. Suddenly, the car startedtoskid. At he end, anunavoidableaccidenthappened: thewheels of the car got in themud. I´mgoingtohavetogoforhelp. Turn off theheadlights and lockthedoorsuntil I return, Nedsaid. Whileshewasalone, Susanrememberedanincidentthathappened a fewmonthsago: A mankilledhiswifeusinganaxe, and ittook place exactlywereSusanwas. Later, sheheardoddsoundsfromoutsidethe car, butshecouldn´tseeanything in thedarkness, sincetheheadlightswereturned off. Afterthat, shenoticedanothersound: bump, bump, bump… Ten minutes later, a bright light illuminatedthevehicle, and sheheard a voicethatwastellinghertogetout of the car. ShethoughtthatNedhadfound a policeofficer, butwhenshegotout of the car, shesawNed. Histhroathadbeencut so deeplythat he wasnearlydecapitated, and hiscorpsewasconstatlyhittingthetree, because he washungfromthetreeafterall: bump, bump, bump… Terrified, Susanrantowardsthe light, and shefoundtheblade of anaxe, and a man holding it.