We’re fans of Halloween and the spooky period here on ELB, so I’ve compiled a variety of articles and exercises to explore the language and literature of this holiday.

The English speaking world celebrates Halloween at the end of October, a time when people dress up in costumes and decorate houses with ghosts and ghouls. It is a celebration of the dead, with ancient Celtic and Pagan origins which were adopted by the Christian church. In modern times, the religious aspect of Halloween has given way to a general celebration of horror and monsters, with children trick-or-treating (knocking on neighbours’ doors asking for sweets, in costumes!) and adults partying in fancy dress. It is an interesting time both to observe different cultures and their practices and to experience lots of interesting vocabulary.

Practising Halloween English

I’ve produced a variety of seasonal articles on this blog to give more insight into the wealth of language used at Halloween. These include reading exercises and some bumper vocabulary lists. I’ve especially looked at some pieces about the classic American horror writer, Shirley Jackson. Check these pieces out below, or keep scrolling and read all about the history of Halloween expressions in English.

• Nasty Nouns for Halloween – a guide to all the crazy things we see and experience during the holiday.
• Abysmal Adjectives – nasty describing words to make your Halloween vocabulary more ghoulish.
• Halloween reading – a short story to practice some of the above vocabulary in context.
• Classic horror reading exercise – an exercise looking at some of the language used in a section from a classic horror writer
• Creepy Halloween mixed tenses exercise – a challenging tenses exercise including the vocabulary from above
• Shirley Jackson: A Biography – exploring the life and work of a famed horror writer
• The Haunting of Hill House – creative writing analysis, studying a brilliant opening paragraph for a horror story
• All of Shirley Jackson’s Novels Reviewed in One Place – an article on my fiction site giving a quick analysis of all of Shirley Jackson’s novels, if you’d like some more creepy reads for Halloween (or in general!)

The Origin of Halloween Expressions

Halloween itself has a rich and interesting history, which you can read more about here. Looking at the origin of some of the words we use at Halloween can give an interesting insight into the festival’s past:

Halloween – the word Halloween itself is nowhere near as old as the celebration – it has Christian origins, from 1745. It comes from ‘All Hallows Eve‘, with Eve meaning the evening before something (like Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve). Halloween is actually the day before All Saints Day, or All Hallows Day, traditionally making it a time of remembrance.

Jack-o-lanterns – the pumpkins people carve and put candles in them borrow their name from an old folk expression for will-o-the-wisp, a ghostly light allegedly seen by travellers. The origins of pumpkin carving are uncertain, but extend a centuries old tradition of vegetable lanterns that fend off evil spirits (or pay respect to spirits, depending on who you ask!).

Trick-or-treating – the practice of going from door to door asking for sweets uses the expression ‘trick’ to mean threat; if a treat is not provided, the trick-or-treaters are supposed to play a trick on the home-owner. This is especially popular in North America, though its influence has spread to the UK more now. It goes back to early celebrations of All Saints Day, when poor people would practice soulling, going door to door asking for offerings in exchange for prayers for the dead (a bit like carol singers at Christmas). They would wear masks or costumes out of respect for the spirits.

The concept of Halloween being a fun festival has evolved over the years as an attempt to meet the concept of death with humour and entertainment; as a celebration of the dead, it is a festival designed to be enjoyed, not feared, though the content would suggest otherwise.

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