BBC Learnings · Section 1

Are Halloween costumes too scary

Wooooo! Trick or treat! For listeners at home, Neil is dressed up as a ghost.

Level: B1 · 109 sentences

Transcript

1. Wooooo! Trick or treat!
2. For listeners at home, Neil is dressed up as a ghost.
3. He's wearing a white bed sheet over his head with two holes
4. cut out for his eyes, which must mean...
5. It's Halloween! The start of autumn,
6. when the days get shorter and leaves fall from the trees,
7. marks Halloween, a festival which is celebrated
8. all over the world at this time of year.
9. In Britain, people carve scary faces into pumpkins
10. and children go trick or treating,
11. dressing up in fancy dress costumes and visiting people's homes shouting,
12. trick or treat, for sweets and candy.
13. Halloween comes from an ancient festival called Samhain.
14. Which celebrated the changing of the seasons,
15. a time when it was believed the dead
16. could make contact with the living,
17. which is why children dress up as ghosts,
18. witches and other scary monsters.
19. But recently, online shops have removed several Halloween costumes,
20. including creepy clown masks and real-life serial killer costumes.
21. After parents complained they were too frightening.
22. In this programme,
23. we'll be discussing whether Halloween is no longer harmless fun.
24. And as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.
25. But before that, and since you're all dressed up as a ghost,
26. Neil, my question is this.
27. Why did people traditionally dress up in costumes on Halloween?
28. Was it a to scare their neighbours as a joke,
29. b to use up their old clothes,
30. or c to hide from ghosts?
31. I think it was to hide from ghosts.
32. OK, Neil, we'll find out the answer later in the programme.
33. In recent years, Halloween has become more influenced by American horror movies
34. like Friday the 13th or Scream.
35. Some parents now think Halloween costumes are too scary
36. and over the top, a phrase meaning too extreme.
37. And unsuitable. Mother of two, Joanne O'Connell, was shocked
38. when she took her 10-year-old daughters shopping for Halloween costumes.
39. Here she explains what she saw to BBC Radio 4 programme,
40. You and Yours.
41. They've seen decorations of small children
42. holding a teddy bear covered in blood.
43. They've seen what's described as a standing animated decoration,
44. which looks like a dead girl carrying a knife.
45. And various grim reapers.
46. Creepy clowns and stuff that kids are now finding
47. frightening and even to an adult they look pretty vile actually.
48. And I think it feels like retailers,
49. there's some kind of race to the bottom for the grimmest,
50. most vile, sickening outfit
51. so that they can just make money out of.
52. Joanne was horrified by Halloween costumes of the Grim Reaper.
53. An imaginary skeleton who wears a long black cloak,
54. carries a sharp cutting tool and represents death.
55. She's worried that costumes like this are too frightening for little children.
56. Nowadays, Halloween is big business and Joanne thinks that the focus on money
57. encourages shops in a race to the bottom a phrase
58. which describes a situation
59. where companies compete with each other to sell as many products
60. as cheaply as possible.
61. The phrase is connected to the idea of standards getting worse and worse.
62. But come on, Sam!
63. Isn't this going too far?
64. I mean, Halloween is supposed to be scary!
65. Yeah, parents don't want to stop people having fun
66. but over-the-top costumes are too scary for younger children
67. and some mums say they will no longer open the door to trick-or-treaters
68. because the costumes are giving children nightmares.
69. Siobhan Freegard, founder of the parenting website Channel Mum,
70. thinks a compromise is needed.
71. Here she is talking to BBC Radio 4's You and Yours.
72. There's a sort of a halfway house isn't there I mean I know
73. Everyone refers to the new generation as the snowflake generation
74. and we shouldn't be so worried about our little darlings.
75. But there's a point beyond which it becomes tasteful or appropriate.
76. Siobhan thinks that scary costumes are OK for teenagers,
77. but she also wants to protect younger children.
78. She thinks we need to find...
79. A halfway house, a compromise or arrangement
80. which includes features of two opposing ideas.
81. She also uses the expression the snowflake generation,
82. a phrase which is sometimes used to describe the generation of young people
83. who became adults in or after the 2010s and
84. who are considered by some to be easily upset and offended.
85. Now I can see how some costumes are over the top
86. and I don't want to spoil Halloween for anyone.
87. So I'll stick with my bed sheet ghost.
88. Anyway, isn't it time for you to reveal the answer to your question, Sam?
89. Yes, I asked why people started dressing up at Halloween in the first place
90. and you said it was to hide from ghosts, which was...
91. The correct answer.
92. Hundreds of years ago,
93. people thought that ghosts would try to return to their old homes at Halloween.
94. People wore masks so that the ghosts would mistake them for other spirits.
95. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with trick-or-treating,
96. the Halloween tradition of dressing up in creepy costumes
97. and knocking on neighbours' doors, shouting,
98. trick or treat, for sweets and candy.
99. Over the top describes something which is too extreme, unsuitable or unacceptable.
100. The grim reaper is an imagined representation of death
101. and looks like a skeleton in a long black cloak.
102. A race to the bottom happens
103. when companies compete with each other in order to sell
104. as many products as cheaply as possible.
105. A halfway house is a compromise
106. which includes features of two contrasting ideas And finally,
107. the snowflake generation is used by some people to refer
108. to the present generation of young people
109. who they think lack resilience and are easily upset.