体育活动内容英语作文（经典19篇）

参与： 残疾人日的庆祝为所有相关各方——政府、非政府和私人部门——的参与提供了机会，从而把注意力集中到采用催化革新的措施进一步贯彻与残疾人有关的国际性规范和标准。中学、大学和类似的机构在推进相关各方对残疾人的社会、文化、经济、公民和政治权利的意识上能够作出特殊的贡献。

组织： 举行论坛、进行公开讨论和信息推进运动，支持残疾人日，将注意力放在残疾人事务上，注重残疾人及其家庭追求独立的生活方式、可持续生活和有经济保障的趋势、方法和手段。

纪念： 在各地计划和组织表演来展示和纪念残疾人为他们所生活的社会所作出的贡献，对残疾人丰富多样的技能、兴趣和愿望进行交流和对话。

行动： 残疾人日的一个焦点是采取切实的行动来进一步贯彻有关残疾人的国际性规范和标准，在平等的基础上鼓励他们参与到社会生活和社会发展中来。媒体在庆祝残疾人日的过程中——整个一年中——可以作出特殊的贡献，它们可以对残疾人事业的进步进行宣传，揭露残疾人政策、计划和项目贯彻过程中遇到的障碍，提高公众对残疾人所作贡献的认识。

Our extracurricular activities are rich and colorful. Some students do games, some students carry out sports activities, and other students participate in the activities of the scientific and technological group, we are very happy to play.

The content of sports is really different. Some students are playing football, some students in the cattle jumping rubber band, there are students in the shuttlecock...... Look! How happy the "hare" students have been playing! The outside circle students has already become a brave little Hunter ". The big circle of students also became only a vivid "hare". "Prepare, start!" Start of the race, the circle of students was a mess, the run. The "small circle hunters but to the middle of the" hare "stormed. "Hit it, hit it!" The small hunters cheered. It turned out that the "bullets" hit two "hare". Another rabbit came up and laughed. When he giggled, he was hit by a "bullet".

The students of the science and technology group play very interesting. See! The students and the model fans are happy to run and jump, and how happy they are! The students who played on the voyage control their beloved boat, which was the same as other students. The students had a water rocket is strong. Look! They seriously look, would have to fight each other "Petals drop and waters flow!"

Between class activities is rich and colorful, it can not only help students grow knowledge, but also enable students to exercise, children, do you like the activities between classes?

Iusually have a lot of things to do after work. Every day after I come home, Ialways read some English passages, in order to improve my spoken English andfeel the charm of language.

After doing that, I surf the Internet to watch thelatest news and find some useful information for my work.

I think this is aneffective way for me to learn more knowledge and widen my horizon.

Then I beginto learn English by listening to VOA and BBC. There are so many interestingstories in these programs. And the hostesses are very excellent. I can alwayssleep well with their beautiful voices. At weekend, I usually have aget-together with my close friends to share our life experience. Sometimes wealso go out for a walk, so as to enjoy our beautiful nature. In short, I usuallyarrange a lot of activities for myself in my free time, because I want to makemy life more wonderful and interesting.

下班后，我通常有很多事情要做。为了提高我的英语口语以及感受到语言的魅力，每天我回到家后我总是看英语短文。

这样之后，我会上网看最新的新闻，找一些对我工作有用的信息。我觉得这是我学习的知识，开阔了我的视野的有效途径。

然后我开始听VOA和BBC来学习英语。在这些节目中有很多有趣的故事。女主持人是很优秀的。

我总是能听着她们甜美的声音入睡。周末的时候我通常和我关系亲密的朋友聚在一起来分享我们的生活经验。有时我们也去散步，以便享受美丽的大自然。总之，我通常会在我空闲的时间为自己安排很多的活动，因为我想让我的生活更精彩有趣。

[高中英语作文：课后活动

On Friday afternoon, the activity class began. We should have in the interior of the standing long jump, can our teacher have led us to epoch-making outdoor activities.

The teacher said: "boys and girls, two teams, come to a game, jump over, see which team first to the opposite." We are all leaping like a happy chicken. As a result, the boy team jumped and jumped into a mess, and I was also pressed into a "meat pie" by Ye Zuhui and others behind. But the boys are still winning, after all, is it a mans strength to run and jump! From time to time, the boys showed a triumphant smile and a joyful cheering from time to time.

But the girls, each pointing to our boys face, said: "the team is scattered, the win is not brilliant!"

The teacher also announced, "now race running, see who runs fast!" Prepare - start! We ran away like wild horses that had taken off the reins. Some of the students can see that they can run away from the runway and run to the end of the race. I have straight teeth, shouted: "who is not a shameless man!" But they listen to me, only if they dont hear them.

When everyone arrived at the end, the teacher said, "go back to the class, and then go down this way."

Although only a few short minutes, it has brought me a lot of happiness, left a deep impression.

I like sports, because doing sports is really a good thing. Firstly, it

helps me keep healthy. Exercise is one of the most active and effective means to

enhance the physical health. Secondly, doing sports is a good way to relax. When

you are upset, sport may pull you out from depression. Finally, it’s easier to

make friends while take part in sport activities, because you have the same

interest. It’s important for making friends. All in all, I get a lot from

sports.

Kobe Bryant first-round draft 13 in 1996 by charlotte hornets selected, then was traded to the Los Angeles lakers. Bryant is now the NBAs best scorer, breakthrough, shooting, free throws, three points he is blind, almost no offense stride, single game 81 points of personal record strong proved this point. Besides the crazy, Bryants organizational ability is also outstanding, often as a team of the first sponsors. Bryant is the best one of the defense, defense is close-fitting oppssive.

科比-布莱恩特1996年首轮13顺位被夏洛特黄蜂队选中，随即被交换到洛杉矶湖人队。科比是现在NBA最好的得分手，突破、投篮、罚球、三分他都驾轻就熟，几乎没有进攻盲区，单场比赛81分的个人纪录就有力的证明了这一点。除了疯狂的得分外，科比的组织能力也很出众，经常担任球队进攻的第一发起人。另外科比还是联盟中最好的防守人之一，贴身防守非常具有压迫性。

一年一度的体育节又来临了。为了这一天的到来，我们全校同学都在这两个星期前进行着紧张的训练。全体学生都做操的做操，跳绳的跳绳，滚铁环的滚铁环，拍皮球的拍皮球，进行着紧张的训练。大家都在为了自己班级的荣誉而在努力地奋斗着。

运动会很快就开始了。刚开始是做广播体操。我们做好了跑步姿势跟随着余滟蔓进了场。在做操的过程中虽然只是下着小雨，但是配合着当时的温度和风还是会让人感到很冷，冷到手脚都已开始僵硬、麻木。但是我们还是在寒风刺骨的环境下坚持了下来。

紧接着，是最激动人心、最备受我们关注的跳长绳比赛了。大家苦苦练了整整两个星期就是为了今天的跳长绳比赛的到来，因为只有今天才能让大家两个星期的努力得到证实，得到最终的成绩。可是比赛还没开始，大家就已经紧张个半死了，特别是我身旁的金弓力和尹亚妮，生怕自己跳不好，在这个时候我只能说尽力而为吧！

比赛终于开始了，刚一开始就状况百出，不是谁谁谁停顿了，就是谁谁谁被勾到了，可是要知道现在已经不是在训练了，比赛已经开始了，更何况机会只有一次，我也只能在心里默念：尽力而为。过了一会儿，一分钟结束了，我跑过去看成绩，我顿时石化了，我们班只跳了57个，没错，白纸黑字，清清楚楚的写着六（6）班57，事实摆在眼前，我也只能期盼有比我们更差的的成绩出现了。

全部比赛终于都结束了，我们班做操和跳绳都是最后一名，我总结出了我们班为什么是最后一名的一点：天时、地利、人和。天时：今天寒风呼啸还下着雨。地利：还可以。人和：大家都有些紧张。不过，不管怎么说，重在参与。

As the proverb goes, “no one knows the value of health until he loses it.”

From this, we know that health is very important to everybody. But how to keep

fit? Many people believe that sports can offer people health and pleasure. As

far as I concern, I think doing physical exercises have lots of advantages.

First of all, doing exercises in the morning will refresh my body as well

as give me a good appetite to eat my breakfast. What’s more, the air in the

morning is really fresh and clean, so I can keep my mind clear and sound in the

class. By doing physical every day I can keep my mind alert that I can finish my

tasks in time. If I do not do any physical exercise, I will feel tired and my

body becomes quite sluggish. During the night, I may find it becomes harder to

fall asleep. Second, doing exercises everyday will help me to mound a better

personality. It takes time and patient to do exercises. Sometimes I just want to

give up, but my friends encourage me to carry on, then I feel a lot of

satisfaction. Doing physical exercises makes me stronger and healthier. That’s

my personal experience.

As a student, sports are indispensable. You can pick up your favorite sport

and do it every day. Only in this way, you can have both pleasure and a healthy

body.

Spring festival is the most importantand popular festival in china.

before spring festival ,the people usually clean and decorate their houses.and they go to the flower fairs to buy some flowers.during spring festival ,the adults usually give lucky money to children.

people often get together and have a big meal.some people eat dumpling for dinner.

i love spring festival .

在这阳光明媚的清晨，我们在时代之星特色教育学校“妙笔生花”班玩了一个有趣的游戏——吹乒乓球。

首先，老师讲了游戏的规则:“每对有四个杯子，前三个装满水，在第一个杯子上放一个乒乓球，让我们把乒乓球从第一个杯子一个一个地吹到最后一个杯子里”老师还说了，由于时间问题每组派三名同学上台比赛，可能是我的人品好吧，我居然被选上了并且还是第一个参赛呢!

第一回合开始了，我的对手是刘裕昕。只见他稳稳当当的半蹲下，轻轻的吹，就像风轻轻的抚摸着，很快乒乓球就被他吹到第二个杯子了，而我却还没开吹，一紧张，劲使得大了，忽然，乒乓球不见了踪影，我急忙低下头去找寻它的踪迹，看到了看到了，我以最快的速度捡起乒乓球继续游戏，可还是无济于事，刘裕昕就完成了比赛把乒乓球吹进了最后一个杯子，咳，我们败北了。

紧接着，第二个回合开始了，对方派的是刘戴源和我们队的周昱晟比赛。只见刘戴源一副”胸有成竹“的样子，而我们队的成员却紧张万分，只听见老师一声哨响，比赛开始了，只见周昱晟不管三七二十一，轻轻的一吹，球就到了第二个杯子里，之后由于周昱晟太激动，一不小心把乒乓球吹掉了，对方见这是个大好时机，便加油赶超，便一口气吹过去，乒乓球又到了最后的一个杯子里，他们又获胜了

最后，第三回合开始了，是我们队的张文璟和对方的杨卓行过招了，由于我们连输了两局，所以我们的队员要发威了，只听哨声一响，咱们队的人吹的特别的顺利，没费吹灰之力就获胜了。这是的我们顿时沸腾了，个个激动得蹦的老高老高的。

通过这次比赛，我感悟到了，凡是做任何事都要有技巧，不能只靠蛮力去赢得胜利。

I spent this holiday very quick, on the 1st May, we went to the zoo, there were crowded there, so many travelers coming from all over the country to have some fun during the holidays.On 2nd May, i visited my relatives with my parents, we had a great lunch together, the resturant were crowded as well.On 3rd May, we went to shopping in the mall, after the shopping we went to watch a new movie. All the other days left I didn’t go anywhere, not only becasue I still had some homework, but also there were almost all crowded in everywhere

Here is an introduction of my schools part time activity.It is my honor to show you .and today I would like to tell you something about the part time activities in my school. Our school has various activities outside class.the activities begin at 4;20 and end at 520 everyday.the groups on different subjects including go out visit, sightseeing, speech contests, art festival, volunteer activities, sports meeting and so on.

Among them, I would like to take part in the sightseeing and  art festival the  most. Because the activities are wonderful.

So I really hope that we can have less homework so we can have more time to participate in the part time activities to have a relax . hope you join us and enjoy every moment in my school !

这是我学校的业余活动简介。我很荣幸向你展示。今天我想告诉你一些关于我学校的兼职活动。我们学校在课外有各种各样的活动。20日结束，每天5 20日结束。

其中，我最想参加的是观光艺术节。因为活动很精彩。

所以我真的希望我们可以少做家庭作业，这样我们就可以有更多的时间参加兼职活动来放松一下。希望你能加入我们，享受我学校的每一刻！

The Spring Festival is a traditional Chinese festival, on this day we want to open happy heart. We also need to eat dinner, also called family reunion dinner, at a distance of family want to go home to have a meal, round and round, round.

Before the arrival of the Spring Festival, my sister and I, aunt go to the supermarket to buy necessities. My sister and I run around in the supermarket, to see what good can get a shopping cart. Like two little cat take things in the supermarket. We took a lot of things, chewie, chocolate, egg roll, potato chips, etc., are all good. To check when we spent four hundred multivariate, aunt love dearly died. We two greediness, the Spring Festival we began to eat snacks are yet to come.

Spring Festival arrived, brother, sister, father is come from a far country and reunion dinner with us. My aunt to burn a lot of delicious dishes, beef, oil, meat, shrimp, spring rolls and so on, and my favorite food is coke chicken wings. People are together, we touched a cup and started off the devoured. Brother said I am very introverted, in fact I at ordinary times is alive in the home, just saw more people to get up, I am shy. This year, I received a lot of red envelopes, sister, grandma gave me a also for his sister, very happy.

Finished eating delicious food, my brother and I, my sister and brother-in-law persons together. At first they are absent-minded, persons, and playing the mobile phone. Later, under the guidance of my aunt, I won several plate, there is a hard man to convince flowering, 10 yuan one person, they began to nervous, hands began to shake. They also said that let me vomit receive red envelopes are, now can not lose money. We rub a mahjong in the afternoon, I win a lot of money.

Pleasant and memorable finally over the Spring Festival, in addition to happy or happy in my heart. But once a year is really too not enough. I wish every day is the Spring Festival.

春节是中国的传统节日，在这天我们要开开心心的。我们还要吃年夜饭，又称团圆饭，在远方的家人都要回家吃饭，团团圆圆的。

在春节到来之前，我和姐姐，姑姑去超市买年货。我和姐姐在超市里跑来跑去的，看到什么好吃的就拿到购物车里。好像两只小馋猫在超市里随便拿东西。我们拿了好多东西，有橡皮糖，巧克力，蛋卷，薯片等，都是好吃的。到结账的时候我们花了四百多元，姑姑心疼死了。我们两个嘴馋，春节还没有到来我们就开始吃零食了。

春节到了，哥哥，姐夫，爸爸都从远方过来和我们一起吃团圆饭。我姑姑烧了好多美味可口的菜，有牛肉，走油肉，虾，春卷等，还有我最喜欢吃的可乐鸡翅。人都齐了，我们碰过杯子就开始狼吞虎咽的吃了起来。哥哥说我很内向，其实我平时在家里都是生龙活虎的，只是一看见人多了起来，我就害羞了。今年我收了好多红包，姐姐工作了，奶奶把给姐姐的一份也给了我，好开心。

吃完了可口的饭菜，我和哥哥，姐姐，姐夫一起搓麻将。一开始他们都心不在焉的，一边搓麻将，一边玩手机。后来在姑姑的指导下，我连赢了好几盘，还有一次杠头开花，一人10元，他们开始紧张起来，手都开始抖了。先前他们还说要让我把收的那些红包都吐出来，现在能不输钱就好了。我们搓了一个下午的麻将，我赢了好多钱。

让人愉快又难忘的春节终于过去了，我心里除了开心还是开心。一年只有一次真是太不过瘾了。真希望天天都是春节。

Good morning，my dear teachers and schoolmates，It’s a great honor for me to make a speech on behalf of the graduating classes.

How time flies! Our junior high school lives will come to an end.In the past three years， we’ve had a beautiful school and it provides us with a good study place. Teachers are our friends. They’ve given us interesting lessons and we all love them.

We’ve learned a lot from them， not only knowledge but also the way to solve problems in life. Thanks for our teachers’ training， parents’ support and the help from classmates. Without them， we couldn’t have so much wonderful time.

At last， we hope our school will become better， our teachers will be healthy for ever and all our dreams will come true.Thank you for listening.

导语：如今，在闲暇的时间里有多的活动供人们娱乐，尤其是在假日，如登山，野餐，举行晚会等，下面是yuwenmi小编为大家整理的优秀英语作文，欢迎阅读与借鉴，谢谢!

Nowadays, there are many kinds of activities for people entertaining in their leisure time, especially in holiday, such as climbing a mountain, having a picnic, holding a party and so on. However, these recreational activities have its advantages but also bring some harmful influences to people’s lives.

First, to some extent, these recreational activities enrich people’s lives. Those who take part in different activities will not be easy to feel lonely or boring in their leisure time and live wonderful lives instead. Second, taking part in some group activities is a good form to strengthen friendships. For example, many students will hold a union to collect their old classmates or friends in winter holiday so that they have a common time to communicate with each other. Last but not least, such activities like climbing a mountain provide a good chance to do exercise.

However, these recreational activities also bring some problems at the same time. For one thing, taking part in too many these activities will increase the burden of themselves or their families because it is inevitable to spend some money in holding these activities. For another, some recreational activities have potential harm for participants’ health, particularly staying up all night, drinking and smoking.

Therefore, in my opinion, we have to make a careful consideration before we take part in these recreational activities.

【参考译文】

如今，在闲暇的时间里有多的活动供人们娱乐，尤其是在假日，如登山，野餐，举行晚会等。然而，这些娱乐活动有其优势，但也给人们的生活带来了一些不利的影响。

首先，在某种程度上，这些娱乐活动丰富了人们的生活。那些参加不同活动的人在他们闲暇的时间里不会是很容易感到寂寞、无聊而是过着美好的生活。第二，参加一些集体活动是加强友谊的一种好方式。比如，很多学生会在寒假和他们的老同学或者朋友聚会，这样大家就有一个共同的时间来相互交流了。最后但并非最不重要的，像爬山这样的活动为人们提供了一个锻炼的好机会。

然而，这些娱乐活动同时也带来了一些问题。首先，参加太多这些活动会增加他们自己或他们家庭的负担，因为举行这些活动不可避免要花一些钱。另一方面，一些娱乐活动对参与者的健康存在潜在危害，特别是熬夜，饮酒和吸烟。

因此，在我看来，在我们参加这些娱乐活动前必须要仔细的考虑。

盼星星，盼月亮，期盼已久的田径运动会终于让我们给盼来了。

第一项是四十米乘二的短跑。正好今天阳光明媚，晴空万里是个跑步的好天气。在老师的带领下，同学们整齐有序的来到操场集合，可老师刚一喊：“解散”。同学们就开始热火朝天的聊今天的比赛是哪个班笑到最后。

当话筒里叫田丽明和吴苗苗这两个人时，只见他们俩脱掉外套、挽起裤腿，扎紧鞋带，雄赳赳，气昂昂的上了场。“各就各位，预备。”这句话似乎用了几天的时间才说完，把大家的心提到了嗓子眼儿上面。运动员和场外的观众们都屏住呼吸，全神贯注地等待着枪声的响起。“嘭。”清脆的枪声传遍整个操场，全场为之震动。顿时，加油声，呐喊声响彻山谷。小苗像离弦的箭一般冲出了起跑线，其他班的队员也不甘落后，像一匹匹骏马，正在昂首奔驰。可是，田丽明呢，一来就摔倒了。旁边其它班的拉拉队员指着他捧腹大笑。我也觉得她把我们班的脸面都丢光了，可是我从她爬起来时的眼神中看出了她的坚定。在我们的鼓励下她又继续跑起来。

忽然，五年级二班的同学快超过我们班的小苗了，一会儿小苗在第二，一会儿小苗在第一，形势变化莫测。大家的心“砰、砰”直跳，拉拉队员也恨不得把自己的力量加在运动员小苗身上，在五二班的同学快到达终点时，小苗爆发了，她如同旋风一样第一个冲到了终点。顿时，欢笑声充斥着整个校园。

小明也跑完了全程，由于没有取得好的成绩而自责的哭了，老师走过来，拍拍他的肩膀说：“哭什么呢？你也胜出了啊，跌倒了能在爬起来——这就是奥运精神，在人生的道路上就永远不会输……”

是啊，本次短跑比赛，小苗赛出了水平，小明赛出了风格，她们都是好样的！

since the childhood, I the most favorite thing to do is to study, I have read many books, there is "always cuckoo", "wu DiuDiuDe adventure", "little fox buy gloves", and "the window of small doug"...

There are many benefits for me to read. Can not only help me when doing the reading, a better understanding of the meaning of the article, and can be better for me to apply my good word, we can also let us learn a lot, understand a lot of sense. Read to make us happy! Reading let us have more laughter!

Among them, I most like to watch "Madame Curie". Madame Curie is like us, since the childhood like intimate contact with nature, Copernicus was her model. Selfless great simplicity, humility, her character, persistent, hard work, perseverance, indomitable spirit, she found two elements, polonium and radium, she won two Nobel prizes. Who can imagine, she is the "mother", radium gave great contribution to the wealth to the world, he even do research, could not afford to 1 gram of radium. As a great woman, she won the sympathy of the people of the world, support and respect.

Read the "Madame Curie", I think I should learn from her, learning her not to difficultly lowers the head, she determined the indomitable spirit of hard. Im going to study hard, grow up to do a scientist like her.

Let us together, can read, read good books, good books!

In order to make our city cleaner and more beautiful, the young volunteers of our school went to the Peoples Park this morning and offered our help.

At eight, the head of the park met us at the gate. After being divided into groups, we set out to work at once. Some tidied up the parking area and had motorbikes paiked in the right place. Some took care of the flowers and bushes, and persuaded people to keep off the grass. Around the tiger den, one group kept order to prevent accidents from happening. At the aquarium, another group worked as guides and advised visitors not to smoke. When some of us were doing cleaning, an old man praised us and said, "Well done, young fellows!"

We were all tired but happy. What a morning we had today!

[你和同学们参加一次活动英语作文

On Saturday morning, I was doing my homework at home when I suddenly heard zhao jia Shouting, "zi ah, its getting late. Its time to go." I listened. Oh, Im going to plant trees with zhao jia today. How did I forget? As soon as I finished, I hurried downstairs with the tools I had prepared.

We went to the garden to buy the saplings first, then went to the garden clearing, where there were many people who planted trees, each with his carefully chosen seedlings. We also found a quick place, first dug a hole, then zhaojia support tree, I came to fill the soil, filled in, I ran to fetch water, zhaojia took the water, water for the seedlings.

It took us one afternoon to finally plant the tree. Although very tired, but, see the tree seedling in the breeze smile, we very happy!

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840s by Irish immigrants fleeing their countrys potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a souls passage to heaven.

The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the trees trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

The Irish used turnips as their "Jacks lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.