Exploring Halloween’s History – A2–B1 Listening Exercise

Where Halloween came from

Seven questions on one recording: whose festival Samhain was, when in the year it fell, who the Druids were, how the Celts marked the night, how the holiday reached the modern calendar.

The answers are proper names and dates rather than everyday words, and the options differ by one detail – Celtic against Irish against German, at the end of the year against at the beginning. A first listen gives the story, a second gives the answers.

Level: B1 · Skills: listening for detail, cultural knowledge · Theme: the history of Halloween