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1、外国语学院 商务英语 1101 袁小丽 2011012406British Traditional Festivals1. Halloween1.1 History of HalloweenHalloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. The word Halloween is a shortening of All Hallows Evening also known as Halloween or All Hallows Eve. Traditional activities include trick-or-t
2、reating, bonfires, and costume parties, visiting haunted houses and carving jack-o-lanterns. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century including Ireland, the U
3、nited States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. Trick-or-treating, is an activity for children on or around Halloween in which they proceed from house to house in costumes, asking for treats such as confectionery with the question, Trick or treat? The trick part of trick or treat is a thre
4、at to play a trick on the homeowner or his property if no treat is given. Trick-or-treating is one of the main traditions of Halloween. It has become socially expected that if one lives in a neighborhood with children one should purchase treats in preparation for trick-or-treaters. The history of Ha
5、lloween has evolved. The activity is popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and due to increased American cultural influence in recent years, imported through exposure to US television and other media, trick-or-treating has started to occur among children in many parts of
6、 Europe, and in the Saudi Aramco camps of Dhahran, Akaria compounds and Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia. The most significant growth and resistance is in the United Kingdom, where the police have threatened to prosecute parents who allow their children to carry out the trick element. In continental Europ
7、e, where the commerce-driven importation of Halloween is seen with more skepticism, numerous destructive or illegal tricks and police warnings have further raised suspicion about this game and Halloween in general. In Ohio, Iowa, and Massachusetts, the night designated for Trick-or-treating is often
8、 referred to as Beggars Night. 1.2 Halloween Superstitions(迷信)Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set
9、 places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world. Todays Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid cro
10、ssing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the
11、ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt. 1.3 How they
12、celebrate the Halloween?The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays goes back to the Middle Ages, and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas, recei
13、ving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day. It originated in Ireland and Britain, although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his maste
14、r of puling whimpering, whining like a beggar at Hallowmas.1.4 Symbols of HalloweenHalloween originated as a celebration connected with evil spirits. Witches flying on broomsticks with black cats, ghosts, goblins and skeletons have all evolved as symbols of Halloween. They are popular trick-or-treat
15、 costumes and decorations for greeting cards and windows. Black is one of the traditional Halloween colors, probably because Halloween festivals and traditions took place at night. In the weeks before October 31, Americans decorate windows of houses and schools with silhouettes of witches and black
16、cats. Pumpkins are also a symbol of Halloween. The pumpkin is an orange-colored squash, and orange has become the other traditional Halloween color. Carving pumpkins into jack- olanterns is a Halloween custom also dating back to Ireland. A legend grew up about a man named Jack who was so stingy that he was not allowed into heaven when he died, because he was a miser. He couldnt enter hell either because he had played jokes on the devil. As a result, Jack had to
