Halloween in Massachusetts (USA)

Happy Halloween! This is a silly holiday in which kids dress up as super heroes, villains, cartoon and movie characters and such. My own boys will be: (1) Bumblebee, the Transformer; and (2) Mario, from Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo video games).

What I like to teach in ELL (ESL) is that there are certain traditions that happen (at least in New England, USA), but they may not be nice, and I always recommend that you not partake.

You see... as an ELL Teacher, I just want students to know and be aware of what's going on around them. For example, on Halloween night, you may see that eggs have been thrown all over the side of a car. You may also see toilet paper in someone's trees and bushes. These should not even be called traditions, but more appropriately pranks. Naughty kids may throw raw eggs on things like cars, so that when the owner comes out the next day, he/ she finds dried egg on his/ her car; which, by the way, is very hard to clean off. Thus, it's a prank.

Toilet paper in the trees or bushes is a prank too, because it's visible and hard to clean. That way... when the homeowners come out in the morning, they see tons of white toilet tissue in their trees - and they know it will take a few hours to clean it all up. Again, a naughty prank.

I know that I cannot always teach "nice" things, and that's okay with me. I just want my students to get some of the truth behind all these things that may or may not make up part of the American culture.

So long, and happy trick-or-treating!

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