By Elsa Ling, Grade 5, APS

Halloween is an annual traditional festival in western countries. This is the one night of the year that people think will be “haunted”, so it is also called “Ghost Festival”.

More than two thousand years ago, The Christian church in Europe designated November 1st as All Hallows Day. “HALLOW” means saint. Legend has it that the Celts, who lived in Ireland, Scotland, and elsewhere, moved the festival forward by one day, to October 31, 500 BC. They believed it was the official end of summer, the beginning of the New Year and the beginning of a harsh winter. At that time, it was believed that the spirits of the deceased would return to the former residence on this day in search of living creatures, to regenerate, and this is the only hope that people can get regeneration after death. And the living people are afraid of the dead ghost to seize life, so people on this day put out the fire, candlelight, so that the dead ghost cannot find the living, and dressed themselves as demons and ghosts to scare away the dead ghost. After that, they will rekindle the fire and candle and start the New Year’s life.

Halloween was originally a celebration of autumn, just as May Day is a celebration of spring. Ancient Gaul, Britain, and Ireland Halloween priests – the druid’s praise autumn there is a grand festival, from midnight on October 31, to the next day on November 1, for a whole day. They think, in that night their great death — Saman that year the ghost of the dead people all called, these evil spirits to be born into the beast to be punished. Of course, the mere thought of such a ghostly gathering was enough to terrify the simple-minded fools of the day. So, they lit a fire and kept a close watch on the evil spirits. That is how the idea of witches and ghosts everywhere started. This is still believed to be true in isolated parts of Europe.

The ancient Romans also had a festival on November 1, which was to honor their Goddess Pomona. They roasted nuts and apples in front of a roaring fire. Our Halloween seems to have been a combination of ancient Roman festivals and Druid festivals.

Halloween activities turned out to be very simple and mostly in churches. But all over Europe, People see Halloween as an opportunity to have fun, tell ghost stories and scare each other. So, people no longer use this festival to praise the fall, but let it become a festival of spirits, witches and ghosts.

By Alex Sun, APS Grade 5

We APS has celebrated Halloween for four years since APS was established in 2016. Every year we have held a great Halloween Party at school.

One week before the Halloween we had begun to prepare for the party. Pumpkins are always a symbol of Halloween. We would make a Jack-o-lantern with pumpkins and brought it to school to decorate our classroom. We also decorated our classroom and hallway with some spiders, skeletons and other spooky things. Our teachers and parents would decorate the gym and make a haunted house. They would also prepare some interesting games for Halloween party.

On Halloween we would dress up in different costumes to school in the morning. Monsters, Ghosts, Pirates, Iron man, Capital American and a lot of other popular characters could be seen everywhere in the school. During Morning exercise, we would visit every APS classroom and the teachers’ office to play trick or treat, we would hold our bags open to catch the candy or other goodies that the teachers drop in.

In the afternoon our Halloween Party began at gym. First, We would like to join the Halloween games, like archery, basketball, bean bag toss etc. We would get some stars in the games and could change mysterious gifts with the stars. Then we would explore the haunted house. Our parents who dressed in ghosts, witches, vampires hid in the haunted house and scare us all the time. Finally, we would choose the best Halloween Costume in every classroom and took some pictures with our teachers and parents. Our parents also prepared lots of delicious food for the party every year, like chocolate, cakes, fruit juice and some cookies. We could enjoy this food all the party.

Halloween Party is one of the most important activity in our school and everyone loves it. We wish our Halloween Party could be held every year and more people can join us and share our pleasure.

By Elsa Ling, APS Grade 5

On September 29th, we had our Autumn Day. We wear in red, orange, yellow and brown. We wear this to show our love to autumn. Autumn is a season when we harvest for our hard work.

在九月二十九日，我们迎接了我们的秋季节。我们把秋天的颜色穿在了身上，我们在身上装点了红色，橙色，黄色和棕色。我们这样穿来表达对秋天的爱意。秋天是一个我们丰收由付出换来回报时的季节。

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

雾气洋溢、果实圆熟的秋，

你和成熟的太阳成为友伴;

你们密谋用累累的珠球，

缀满茅屋檐下的葡萄藤蔓;

使屋前的老树背负着苹果，

让熟味透进果实的心中，

使葫芦胀大，鼓起了榛子壳，

好塞进甜核;又为了蜜蜂

一次一次开放过迟的花朵，

使它们以为日子将永远暖和，

因为夏季早填满它们的粘巢。

By Alex Sun, APS Grade 5

During 2020, we all wore our masks because of COVID-19. Wearing masks is very important, we should wear our masks in class and breaks. Masks protect us from COVID virus. “It just takes one person to close the school if we don’t wear masks.” said Mr. Chad. The teachers are working hard to make sure everyone has their masks on at school. We all know wearing masks is hot and makes us difficult to breathe, but the danger of the disease worth us wearing the masks.

Some students in our school didn’t wear masks occasionally. It is not a good behavior, it will bring dangers to the other students or even make themselves sick, but most of the students in our school were wearing masks well and it keeps them healthy. If you are near someone within one meter, you had better not eat or drink. Because when you are eating or drinking you have to take off your masks and it is dangerous. When you are exercising outside, do not wear your masks, you can take off your masks and get some fresh air.

COVID-19 is a kind of harsh disease and we still have not find right medicine to treat it. Be sure to put your masks on when you are close to others, it will protect you and protect others too.