Sam: I'm Sam.
Neil: And I'm Neil.
Whoo-oo-oo!
Trick or treat!
Sam: For listeners at home, Neil is dressed up as a ghost.
He's wearing a white bedsheet over his head with two holes cut out for his eyes, which must mean…
Neil: It's Halloween!
The start of autumn, when the days get shorter and leaves fall from the trees, marks Halloween,
a festival which is celebrated all over the world at this time of year.
In Britain, people carve scary faces into pumpkins and children go trick-or-treating,
dressing up in fancy dress costumes and visiting people's homes shouting, 'trick or treat!'
for sweets and candy.
Sam: Halloween comes from an ancient festival called Samhain
which celebrated the changing of the seasons,
a time when it was believed the dead could make contact with the living,
which is why children dress up as ghosts, witches and other scary monsters.
Neil: But recently, online shops have removed several Halloween costumes
including creepy clown masks and real-life serial killer costumes after parents complained they were too frightening.
In this programme, we'll be discussing whether Halloween is no longer harmless fun,
and as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.