https://docs.google.com/a/wostudent.net/presentation/d/1nuaHLmDtUyyz4PAyGTIq0KMkY1ql2tj4zIk5eS4r0Qc/present?slide=id.p

We all know what Halloween is. Everyone looks out their window on October 31st and sees children dressed as ghosts and goblins, chanting ‘trick-or-treat’ as they run from door to door. It is a tradition that many people anticipate every year. Halloween has become one of the most celebrated holidays in the USA. But how and when did Halloween start?

To this day, historians debate exactly how Halloween started. There are many theories about it, such as druidism, Christianity, and paganism. But the deepest roots of Halloween lie in Samhain. Samhain was a festival celebrated in Ireland and Scotland in medieval times. It meant the end of the year, as the new year was celebrated on November 1st.The term Samhain is derived from Celtic polytheism, which had been around since Roman times. The traditions of Samhain included stocking up on food for the winter, having a bonfire, and burning the bones of livestock. Turnips and pumpkins would be carved into what we call jack-o-lanterns. The term jack-o-lantern comes from the story of Stingy Jack, in which a man named Jack was forced to wander the earth in the dark with only a hollowed-out turnip with a candle inside for light. This explains the very origins of Halloween and why we celebrate it on October 31st. But why do we dress up, scare each other, and watch horror movies?

The spooky part of Halloween comes from The Festival of the Dead, which is what the Celts celebrated on Samhain in addition to the traditions aforementioned. The Celts believed that on Samhain the door between our world and the world of the dead opened. The people would dress up in scary costumes in order to ward off evil spirits. This is why we dress up on Halloween. Some people went from door to door asking for food on Samhain, claiming they were spirits. This is believed to be the origin of trick-or-treating. Tables were set on Samhain, and families would call for the spirits of their dead loved ones to come and feast with them. Samhain is still celebrated by some religious groups but has mostly been replaced by Halloween. As time passed, many other people and cultures contributed to Halloween, making it what it is today.

http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/history-halloween-all-hallows-eve-when-did-halloween-start

http://www.internetmonk.com/wp-content/uploads/halloween-haunted-house.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kEYf6WXYzDo/UDlVOF0VW3I/AAAAAAAABuE/IDVX1ldavsg/s1600/jack-o-lantern.jpg

http://www.halloween-history.org/

beach
summer
paradise
best place on earth
shore

 

 

My kind has lived

in these forests for a thousand years

yet the humans think

this land is theirs

 

they stalk me

through the woods

like I’m a vicious animal

their traps litter my trails all I want is a life of peace and privacy

 

why must the humans hunt me down

and make me miserable?

what have I done?

I eat mushrooms and berries…

not human children

I am greatly misunderstood

and sooner or later, they will catch me.

Soon, the Sasquatch will be gone forever.

                                            – Cade Gilbreath

My favorite sense is hearing. You can come when someone calls, or always hear someone coming from behind you. Without it, you can hardly hunt, because you often hear an animal before you see it. You couldn’t hear your phone ring, or even if you could, you couldn’t hear the person talking. If you got lost in the woods, you would probably die, because you could not hear someone calling for you, or hear a predator creeping up from behind. If your house burnt, you could not hear the fire alarm. Without hearing, life would be very dangerous. It would take away fun, too. No music, or no audio on video games. These are the reasons I would keep my hearing over any other sense.

We could change the world by volunteering at homeless shelters or at the pound, but everybody does that. In America, at least hobos have somewhere to go, like Highway 80 Rescue Mission. Its other countries, like Africa, that need rescue missions. Since I’m only in the sixth grade, I can’t just hop on a plane and fly to Zimbabwe to build a homeless shelter, but I can raise money and start an organization that builds shelters in needy countries. These shelters could have beds, kitchens, and maybe some things for entertainment. The biggest shelters could even have a hospital, with vaccinations, trained doctors, and medical equipment to care for a broken bone or other problems. Money isn’t the only thing people can donate. Canned food, clothing, and shoes will also be accepted. Volunteers from around the USA or other healthy countries like Great Britain could help gather donations or even travel to Africa and help build shelters. Churches could send missionaries to help build shelters and then Christianize these sick, homeless people. We are all humans, and I think we should help each other out.

Hello, this is United States military reporter Cade Jillbreath from Sweden 2 days after the war! Over the years of WWII, about 7,000 Jews have been safely transported to Sweden. Starting today, these people are going back to their homeland. “ It’s been a lot of work hiding and transporting these people, but it’s worth it, saving so many people,” says former Resistance member Heinrich Joburg. He alone has used his boat to save 47 Jews from German forces. The first Jews to go home will be the ones from Denmark, because it is a very short distance away. Today, a family called the Rosens told me their story, which I will pass on to you with their permission. It started when their rabbi told them that Nazis would come and take them away. The Rosens left their daughter, Ellen, with their neighbors, the Johansons. Soon after this, they went to the coast to try to get to Sweden. They got on a boat with other Jews,then, they heard footsteps, and a stern voice say, “Halte!” But then the captain pulled out a handkerchief covered in rabbit blood and cocaine, which destroyed the search dogs’ sense of smell, so they can’t smell out the Jews. This kept them safe, and today they will go home to Denmark. These are lucky, compared to the Jews in concentration camps. I recently visited a liberated concentration camp called Auschwitz, one of the largest camps in Europe. Dead and dying women and children as well as men laying on the ground. But now, all of that is over, Hitler is dead, and the Jews are going home. Hitler was found in his bunker by his officers, dead. This was right before Russian, American, and British soldiers closed in on Berlin. The Nazi soldiers are now being persecuted, but many have fled the country to remote places like South America. Each boat transporting Jews home can hold about 100 people at a time, so taking 7,000 people might take a while. That number doesn’t matter to boat captain, Fredrich Heinz. “It makes me proud to use my boat to help these people,” he says. Dockmaster Holakbee predicts that all Jews will be home in 2 months. After hiding so long this number is negligible to the Jewish people. Again, I am Cade Jillbreath, military reporter.

I woke up on December 23, my birthday, and felt great. I was relieved because I had caught a virus a couple days earlier when my cousins came to Christmas sick. I was better, but my mom caught it from me. My dad slept until about noon, and all I did until then was play on my ipod and watch TV while my mom laid on the coach. My dad finally got up and we went to eat at Red Lobster. When we got home my mom felt a little better so I opened my presents. I saw them and I panicked because none of the boxes were big enough to be what I wanted, a Thompson M1-A1 air soft gun. I opened all of them except for a little bag and found a note that said, “Dear Cade, we hope you are not disappointed. We could not get the gun you wanted. Now go look on Madison’s (my sisters) bed. I ran back to her room and saw the Thompson box on her bed. I opened it and hooked up the battery and loaded the magazine. I walked outside and aimed the gun at a tree. It shot 2 shots, then stopped. I figured out that the magazine was broken. The next morning we took it back to Academy and got a new one. After the battery charged, I took it outside and shot a tree. It worked perfectly. After that, we had a great Christmas vacation.

It was the middle of the night on the fishing boat the La Pesca. My dad and I were deep sea fishing off of the Port Aransas coast. My line was in the water with no bites in the past hour as I watched my dad reel in kingfish after kingfish. Everyone on the boat was catching fish- except  me. I had caught two fish the in the whole 24 hour fishing trip! Then I felt my pole bend hard and my line take off. I yanked and the hook was set. The battle had begun. I pulled and reeled, but the fish kept fighting hard. Finally, 25 feet under, I saw a light blue shape. It kept coming toward the surface until he emerged from the ocean. It was an Atlantic Sharpnose shark, about four feet long. The deckhand gaffed him and soon he was on board. A few minutes later he was dead, and they put him in the cooler with the other fish.