Voice 1:
Thank you for joining us for Spotlight. I’m Joshua Leo.

Voice 2:
And I’m Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Children:
Trick or treat!

Voice 1:
Every October thirty-first [31st] children all across America do something unusual. They put on strange clothes. They may even paint their faces to look like someone different. They walk around to different houses. They knock on the door of the house. And then they ask for a sweet candy treat!

Children:
Trick or treat!

Voice 1:
This is the holiday of Halloween.

Voice 2:
People all around the world celebrate holidays like Halloween. But they celebrate them in different ways. Today’s Spotlight is on Halloween!

Voice 1:
The tradition of Halloween is very old. In fact, historians, people who study history, believe that Halloween traditions began as long as two thousand five hundred [2500] years ago. They believe these traditions started in ancient Ireland, with the Celtic people.

Voice 2:
The Celts had two seasons - summer and winter. The bright half of the year was summer. And the dark half was winter. They believed that the bright half of the year ended around October thirty-one [31]. After this day, came the beginning of the winter season. The Celtic people called this change in season Samhain, which means the ‘end of summer.’

Voice 1:
Samhain was a special time. It was a celebration of the end of summer, or life, and the beginning of winter, or death. So it was also a frightening time. The Celts believed that there was a natural barrier between the living and the dead. But, around this time, the barrier disappeared. They believed that spirits could rise from the dead around the time of Samhain. They [bad word] among the living. And the spirits could even occupy the body of a living person during the next year.

Voice 2:
Historians say that during the celebration of Samhain the Celts dressed themselves in different clothes. They walked through their villages making lots of noise. And they caused disorder in the village. They believed that this frightened the spirits away. Some historians also believe that the Celts sacrificed humans or animals during this celebration as a warning to the spirits.

Voice 1:
Other people groups in other parts of the world celebrated similar holidays. Around the year four hundred [400], Christians came to Ireland. They began to celebrate Christian holidays at the same time the Celts celebrated their holidays.

Voice 2:
For many years the church had a celebration in honour of saints - special people in the Church. They called this celebration ‘All Saints Day,’ or ‘All Hallows Day.’ It was a day to celebrate these special, or ‘holy,’ people. They celebrated ‘All Hallows Day’ on November one [1]. And after a time, people began calling the Samhain celebration ‘All Hallows Eve.’ That is because it happened on the evening, or night, before ‘All Hallows Day.’ Language is always changing. After a while, people shortened the name ‘All Hallows Eve’ to ‘Halloween’ and that is what we call it today!

Voice 1:
For many people today, Halloween is a very important time. It is a day to celebrate the people who have lived before us. Many people believe that Halloween started in the Americas. But that is not [bad word] 

Voice 2:
Irish settlers brought Halloween traditions to the United States in the middle eighteen hundreds [1800’s].

But Americans did not widely celebrate Halloween until almost one hundred [100] years later - during the early nineteen hundreds [1900’s]. Today, children all across the United States dress up on October thirty-one [31]. They go from door to door demanding candy by saying ‘trick or treat.’ And some still cause trouble too - just like the ancient Celts celebrating Samhain!

Voice 1:
People celebrate holidays like Halloween all around the world. Many