Halloween in America: Costumes, Candy, Costs for Night of Fright

2024 · VOA Learning English

This speaker is a general-american model. Each line below can be recorded and scored against it.

Transcript

1. October 31 is Halloween. But many Americans have been preparing for the holiday for weeks.

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2. And businesses are hoping for good profits from Halloween purchases. The National Retail Federation (N.R.F.)

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3. is the largest U.S. trade group representing sellers of material goods.

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4. It expects total Halloween spending in 2024 to reach about $11.6 billion.

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5. That sounds like a healthy amount, but it would be a drop from the year before. The N.R.F.

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6. says total Halloween spending in 2023 was a record-setting $12.2 billion.

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7. So, you might wonder: What are Americans buying for Halloween and how do they celebrate the holiday?

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8. Halloween traditions in America are linked to Celtic beliefs in ancient Britain.

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9. The Celts believed that spirits of the dead would return to their homes on October 31, the day of the autumn feast.

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10. Celts would build huge fires to frighten away any evil spirits that might return.

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11. People from Scotland and Ireland brought these ideas with them when they came to America.

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12. Some believed that spirits played tricks on people on the last night of October.

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13. In modern America, the holiday mostly belongs to children. After dark, children wear special clothing, called costumes.

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14. They often appear as frightening creatures like vampires, ghosts and witches. The children walk around their neighborhoods, knocking on doors of homes.

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15. When someone answers a door, the children yell “trick or treat.”

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16. If the people in the homes do not give them a sweet treat, the children may play a trick on them.

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17. Some of the purchases people make for Halloween include candy and costumes. This year, the N.R.F.

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18. expects the superhero character Spider-Man to be the most popular children’s costume.

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19. Children are not the only Americans in costumes on Halloween, however.

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20. Adults also dress up in costumes and attend Halloween parties, parades and other events.

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21. These celebrations often include costume competitions, with prizes for the most frightening, inventive or humorous costumes.

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22. Overall, the N.R.F. reports, total spending on costumes for Halloween 2024 is expected to reach a total of $3.8 billion.

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23. It says buyers will spend $3.5 billion on Halloween candy. Americans also enjoy decorating their homes for Halloween.

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24. People hang fake skeletons, witches, spiders and other scary things around their doors and from trees and bushes.

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25. They also cut scary faces into pumpkins and light them to create a strange glow

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26. Some people do a little decorating, others do a lot, and still others do none at all. But, the N.R.F.

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