Halloween is one of the most exciting holidays in the United States, and it has become popular in many European countries too. Children and adults dress up in scary costumes and take part in spooky games and parties. Watch the short video, then read about the four traditions everybody knows.
Halloween Traditions and Celebrations – a video for A1–A2 learners
Four Halloween traditions
🧙 Creative costumes
Many American schoolchildren bring their costumes to school. Popular choices are witches, ghosts, skeletons, vampires, monsters and even aliens. Some parents make costumes at home, others buy them in shops. Schools usually have a Halloween party in the afternoon, and classrooms and hallways are decorated with pumpkins, bats, ghosts and witches.
🍎 Bobbing for apples
A classic Halloween game. Apples float in a big bowl of water, and you have to catch one using only your mouth – no hands allowed! It is harder than it looks, and players often get soaking wet.
🎃 The jack-o’-lantern
People carve faces into pumpkins, put a candle inside and display them in windows or gardens. The tradition comes from Great Britain and Ireland, where people once used large turnips to scare away evil spirits. In the USA pumpkins replaced turnips because there were more of them.
🍬 Trick or treat
The phrase “Trick or treat!” comes from an old Irish tradition that immigrants brought to the United States. In the evening children and teenagers put on costumes and visit the houses in their neighbourhood. When someone opens the door, they say “Trick or treat!” and hope for sweets. With no treat, a playful trick might follow – like writing on windows with soap.
Halloween is not just for kids: teenagers and adults love costume parties too.
costume – special clothes to look like someone else · to carve – to cut a shape into something · turnip – a round white vegetable · treat – something nice, like sweets · trick – a joke played on someone
- Watch the video once without the text, then ask: Which traditions did you see?
- Read the four traditions in groups – each group presents one to the class.
- Finish with the free worksheet: vocabulary, reading and speaking tasks on the same traditions.
Everything else for the holiday – games, worksheets, listening and videos – is in the Halloween section.