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Hi, everybody! I am Georgiana, your English teacher and founder of\\xa0SpeakEnglishPodcast.com. My mission is to help you speak English fluently.\\xa0

\\xa0In today\'s episode:

• I\'ll be talking about one of the most celebrated holidays in the United States:\\xa0Halloween.
• After that, you\'ll practice your\\xa0speaking\\xa0with a new mini-story while enjoying my new Question & Answer story.

\\xa0

Very well. Let\'s get started!

Halloween\\xa0is a holiday celebrated on the last day of October. I would say it\'s very popular because everybody\'s excited about it, especially children.

The word Halloween comes from an old English expression, "All Hallows\' Eve," and it means\\xa0the day before All Saints\' Day.\\xa0

Children of all ages really love Halloween because they can\\xa0dress up\\xa0in\\xa0funny costumes\\xa0and knock on their neighborhood doors, shouting, "Trick or Treat!". The neighbors usually give them candies.

The meaning of the phrase "Trick or Treat" is interesting. In this context,\\xa0"treat"\\xa0means\\xa0getting the candies, and\\xa0"trick"\\xa0means the\\xa0consequence of not getting the sweets. It\'s like an innocent\\xa0threat\\xa0children make. Of course, kids get really excited when they knock on strangers\' doors in their neighborhood.

Since Halloween originated as a celebration connected with evil spirits, the most common symbols are\\xa0witches flying on broomsticks,\\xa0ghosts,\\xa0skeletons,\\xa0black cats, etc. The\\xa0black color\\xa0is one of the traditional Halloween colors.

Of course,\\xa0pumpkins\\xa0are also a Halloween symbol. I\'m sure you\'ve seen them in movies. People empty pumpkins and put a candle inside to make a lamp.

\\xa0How do you make a\\xa0Halloween pumpkin?\\xa0

• The first step is hollowing out the pumpkin.
• After that, we use a keyhole we saw to cut the hole.\\xa0
• When using a\\xa0candle\\xa0for illumination, you can cut the hole in the pumpkin\'s\\xa0top.
• For\\xa0electric lights, make a hole\\xa0in the bottom or side\\xa0so you can hide the cord.

The Halloween pumpkin is called Jack-O\'-Lantern. It\'s common to see jack-o\'-lanterns on doorstep decorations before and on Halloween.

The name comes from an Irish legend\\xa0about a man named Jack. He was so\\xa0ungenerous\\xa0that when he died, he couldn\'t enter Heaven, but he couldn\'t go to Hell either because he had\\xa0told jokes about the Devil. As a result, Jack had to walk and walk with a lantern until the\\xa0Day of Judgment.

Here\'s what a typical family does at Halloween:

• They decorate their home. Americans spend about 5 billion dollars every year.
• They buy costumes. A costume is not cheap. It can cost $30 or more.
• They buy plenty of candy, and of course, they eat it.
• Kids go "trick or treating." In most towns, it\'s only allowed from 3 pm until5 pm because it gets dark quickly.

Very well, now you know a bit more about this beautiful holiday. Maybe next time, you\'ll carve your own Halloween pumpkin and\\xa0celebrate\\xa0Halloween\\xa0just\\xa0like\\xa0an\\xa0American!

Get the transcript here: SpeakEnglishPodcast.com/podcast