One story about Jack, an Irishman, who was not allowed into Heaven because he was stingy with his money. So he was sent to hell. But down there he played tricks on the Devil (Satan), so he was kicked out of Hell and made to walk the earth forever carrying a lantern.
Well, Irish children made Jacks lanterns on October 31st from a large potato or turnip, hollowed out with the sides having holes and lit by little candles inside. And Irish children would carry them as they went from house to house begging for food for the village Halloween festival that honored the Druid god Muck Olla. The Irish name for these lanterns was "Jack with the lantern" or "Jack of the lantern," abbreviated as " Jack-o-lantern" and now spelled "jack-o-lantern."
The traditional Halloween you can read about in most books was just childrens fun night. Halloween celebrations would start in October in every elementary school.
Children would make Halloween decorations, all kinds of orange-paper jack-o-lanterns. And from black paper youd cut "scary" designs ---an evil witch with a pointed hat riding through the sky on a broomstick, maybe with black bats flying across the moon, and that meant bad luck. And of course black cats for more bad luck. Sometimes a black cat would ride away into the sky on the back of the witchs broom.
And on Halloween night wed dress up in Mom or Dads old shoes and clothes, put on a mask, and be ready to go outside. The little kids (children younger than we were) had to go with their mothers, but we older ones went together to neighbors houses, ringing their doorbell and yelling, "Trick or treat!" meaning, "Give us a treat (something to eat) or well play a trick on you!" The people inside were supposed to come to the door and comment on our costumes.
Oh! heres a ghost. Oh, theres a witch. Oh, heres an old lady.
Sometimes they would play along with us and pretend to be scared by some ghost or witch. But they would always have some candy and maybe an apple to put in our "trick or treat bags." But what if no one come to the door, or if someone chased us away? Then wed play a trick on them, usually taking a piece of soap and make marks on their windows. afterwards we would go home and count who got the most candy. One popular teen-agers Halloween trick was to unroll a roll of toilet paper and throw it high into a tree again and again until the tree was all wrapped in the white paper. The paper would often stay in the tree for weeks until a heavy snow or rain washed it off. No real harm done, but it made a big mess of both the tree and the yard under it. One kind of Halloween mischief.
註釋：
1. was stingy with：對……吝嗇。Stingy這個詞你可不要去模仿，因為他是“吝嗇的”意思，要不你可要成為“葛朗臺”了!但你可要注意stinggy這個形容詞詞是和介詞with連用的呀!
2. carrying a lantern：拿著燈籠。這裡用carrying作walk的伴隨狀語，更生動地說明可憐的Jack無論走到哪裡手裡都要提著燈籠了。好累呀!
3. neighbors houses：鄰居的屋子。Neighbors本身已經是複數，有一個“s”了。如果表示“鄰居的”，就不能加“s”(太累贅)，而要直接加“”了。所以就是neighbors houses。
4. come to the door：應門。“走到門前面”自然就是要來開門看看是哪些小調皮在搗亂啦!
5. unroll a roll of toilet paper：開啟一卷紙。這麼多roll，可別怵!roll是“卷、捲起”的意思，a roll of toilet paper是一卷手紙;unroll則是roll(捲起)的反義詞“開啟”的意思，所以就是“開啟一卷手紙”了!