The Story of Halloween
Halloween is one of the favorite holidays for both children and adults in North America. On the night of October 31, families decorate their homes with carved pumpkins called jack-o-lanterns. Children dress up like ghosts, monsters, witches and even storybook princesses and famous heroes. They go from house to house in their neighborhood knocking on doors and shouting, “Trick or treat!” to receive candy and sweets.
Halloween is actually a very old holiday that has changed a lot since it was first celebrated. A long time ago people in Europe celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of the new year on October 31. They believed that on this day the spirits of the people who died that year could walk the Earth again. People would dress up in costumes and parade around their village making lots of noise. They wanted to scare away the evil ghosts and spirits.
Later, Christians in England and Ireland took the holiday as their own. They changed it to honor their saints. November 1 became “All Saints Day,” or “All Hallows Day.” The night before, October 31, was All Hallows Eve. The name was shortened to Halloween.
Even though it was a Christian holiday, people kept many of the old traditions. People in different parts of Europe celebrated it in different ways. In some places they wore frightening costumes. In other countries they went door-to-door collecting special cakes called “soul cakes.” In Ireland, people played tricks on each other. Later these traditions were mixed together when people from all parts of Europe moved to America.
One of the most popular traditions is making jack-o-lanterns from pumpkins. The first jack-o-lanterns were actually cut from turnips. The tradition began with the story of Jack, an evil man who once tricked the devil. After he died, Jack could not get into heaven because of his evil ways, but he could not get into hell either because of the trick he played on the devil. Because he would have to walk in the darkness forever, the devil gave him a lantern made from a carved turnip to light his way.
The Irish made “Jack’s lanterns” out of turnips every Halloween. When they came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were much easier to carve. Today people like to carve scary faces in their jack-o-lanterns and place then in front of their homes on this very special night. On Halloween, you wouldn’t be caught dead without a jack-o-lantern in front of your home.
【中譯文】
在北美，萬聖節是一個十分受到大人和小孩們所喜愛的重要節慶之一。在每年10月31日，家家戶戶會用一種叫做”jack-o-lanterns”的雕刻南瓜裝飾自己的家。孩子們會把自己打扮成鬼、怪獸、巫婆，甚至是童話故事裡面的公主或是有名的大英雄。他們會一起挨家挨戶的敲著鄰居的大門並大叫：Trick or treat! 希望能藉此獲得一些糖果或點心。
事實上，打從第一次慶祝萬聖節的活動到現在，很多慶祝方式已經無形中隨著時間改變而與原先有很大不同了。很久以前，歐洲的人們都會在每年暑假的尾聲和(古代所謂的)新年的開始----10月31日。他們深信在這一天，所有已經昇天的靈魂都能夠在這一天再回到地球。人們會盡情的打扮自己，裝扮成各種不同造型並在自己的村莊裡面大聲叫喊沿街遊行。他們想要藉由大叫或各式各樣古怪造型的方法來嚇跑那些鬼怪神魔！
過了一段時間後，居住在英格蘭和愛爾蘭的基督徒就把這一天訂為他們自己的假日。他們將這一個節日用來尊敬紀念所信仰的神靈。因此，11月1日變成了”神靈大會”或是”神靈之日”。在這前一晚，10月31日便成為了所有神靈聚集在一起的夜晚。其名稱也簡稱為現在所謂的”Halloween”！
即便這是屬於基督徒的節日，人們仍舊保有了相當多的傳統習俗。在歐洲的許多地方，人們也都會用不同的方式來慶祝這一天。有些地方的人會穿著十分嚇人的服裝，有些地方的人們會挨家挨戶得去蒐集特別的蛋糕，他們稱之為”靈魂蛋糕”，在愛爾蘭，人們會互相捉弄、開彼此的玩笑。過了一段時間這些活動變因為原本住在歐洲的人們搬往美國後而混合在一起了。
在這些十分普遍的傳統活動中就屬自己動手做”jack-o-lantern”最有趣了！事實上第一個”jack-o-lantern”是由鬱金香花所做成的。這個故事起源於Jack，一個曾經捉弄惡魔的邪惡男子！但是在Jack死後卻也因為他的惡作劇行為讓他也不能升天。另外，由於他也只能永遠在黑暗中行走，惡魔也給了他一個由鬱金香雕刻而成的的燈籠讓他找到光明之路。
愛爾蘭人會在每一次的萬聖節用鬱金香來製造”Jack的燈籠”。當他們搬到美國的時候意外發現南瓜會比鬱金香來的容易雕刻。演變到現在就成了許多人喜歡在南瓜上面雕刻各種恐怖嚇人的表情並在這個特別的夜裡把他們擺放在家門前。再萬聖節的這一天，如果你放一個”jack-o-lantern”在門前就不用害怕會被活捉了！
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