Inside: Fun cut and paste worksheet about six popular Halloween symbols for kids.
Every October homes fill with symbols of the Halloween season including Jack o’ lanterns, paper bats, and plastic skeletons, but have you ever wondered why these particular symbols represent Halloween?
Most of us do all the Halloween things each year and don’t even realize that many of the symbols of Halloween represent history and beliefs of people who lived long ago.
The symbols we see everywhere during Halloween night aren’t always random choices from a marketing team.
They’re rooted in ancient traditions, Irish folklore, medieval superstitions, and cultural stories that traveled across oceans with Irish immigrants who brought their Halloween traditions to North America.
Understanding the origins of our traditions makes celebrating the holiday richer and a lot more interesting.
There are many ways you can talk about Halloween symbols and history. This is how I’ve chosen to talk to my kids about it right now.
Halloween Symbols
I created a fun free printable cut and paste worksheet that breaks down some basic information about six of the most popular Halloween symbols in a way kids can actually understand.
You can use this printable (perfect for elementary and middle school ages) as part of a Halloween Unit Study or as a simple standalone activity to learn a little more about Halloween.
Symbols of Halloween Worksheet
The first page of the worksheet is the page that everything gets cut and pasted onto. The top of this page has some simple information about Halloween and symbols.
The next two pages each have information about six Halloween symbols. This information will be cut out and put together making an awesome page all about the symbols of Halloween.
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Halloween Symbols on the Worksheet
There are a lot of Halloween symbols but I chose six that are popular have an interesting history and are appropriate for kids.
You can keep the explanation about each symbol short and simple, or you can spend more time learning about all or some of them.
Jack O’ Lanterns
Jack O’ Lanterns and the carved pumpkin tradition can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stringy Jack.
According to the story, Stingy Jack tricked the Devil multiple times and was denied entry to both heaven and hell when he died. He was condemned to wander the earth with only a burning coal inside a hollowed-out turnip to light his way.
Irish immigrants brought the tradition of carved turnip lights to America, but they quickly discovered pumpkins were easier to carve than turnips and made much better Halloween decorations.
Today’s jack o’ lanterns still serve that symbolic purpose, even if most families just think they look festive. The carved face represents protection, a beacon to guide lost souls away from your home while celebrating the harvest season at the end of summer.
On the worksheet you’ll find this information about Jack O’ Lanterns: Jack-o’-lantern are a glowing carved face that some believe keeps scary spirits away. Irish families carved turnips and other root vegetables, then switched to pumpkins in America,
Black Cats
Black cat and how they became a symbol of Halloween can be traces back to fear and superstition in medieval Europe.
During the Middle Ages, black cats became associated with witches and black magic. This fear was so intense that black cats were often killed (killing cats may have allowed rat populations to grow and spread the plague faster).
Even today the connection between black cats and bad luck is believed by some and adoption rates for black cats are lower than other cats. History.com has an interesting article about black cat symbolism.
Interestingly while some cultures have negative superstition about black cats, in many different cultures they’re actually considered good luck.
No matter if you have negative or positive beliefs about black cats we can all agree a black cat silhouette against a full moon is perfect for Halloween marketing design.
On the worksheet you’ll find this information: Black cats looked mysterious. In medieval Europe, people connected black cats with witches & bad luck. Today the superstition is mostly seen as unfair to cats. Many shelters have trouble placing black cats
Bats
Bats got their strong connection to Halloween by showing up at the wrong time.
The Celtic festival of Samhain involved lighting large bonfires to ward off malevolent spirits as the boundary between the living and dead grew thin.
These massive fires attracted a lot of insects, which in turn drew bats out to feed on them. People gathering for Samhain rituals would see hundreds of bats swooping through the firelight, creating an eerie scene that linked these nocturnal creatures to the supernatural.
Two reasons bats became Halloween icons:
- They live in dark, abandoned places like caves and old buildings, the same locations people associated with ghosts and spirits
- Their night-flying behavior seemed unnatural to people who didn’t understand echolocation or nocturnal hunting patterns
Bats have become one of the traditional symbols of Halloween because they’re real animals, but their behavior felt mysterious and spooky.
On the worksheet you’ll find this information: Bats are a flying mammals that are awake at night. Bats were common around the bonfires of old harvest festivals. Fires drew insects, and bats came to eat them
Skeletons
Skeletons represent the most direct symbol of death you can display.
Samhain marked the time of year when the Celts believed the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest. It was a moment to honor ancestors, remember those who had passed, and acknowledge mortality before winter arrived.
Skeletons became the visual representation and a reminder that death is part of the natural cycle.
Mexican Día de los Muertos celebrations that honor the dead with decorated skeleton imagery, influenced Halloween decorations in the United States, especially in regions with strong Hispanic cultural connections.
On the worksheet you’ll find this information: Skeletons and skulls remind people of death, and different cultures treat them very differently. At Halloween they’re usually spooky. In Día de los Muertos, calaveras are bright and happy.
Witches
The witch silhouette, complete with pointed hat and broomstick, has become one of the most commonly used Halloween symbols and a big part of Halloween lore.
The real history of Witches is a lot more than association with a spooky holiday.
Witches were originally wise women, healers, and midwives who understood herbal medicine and natural remedies.
During medieval Europe and later in North America, fear and religious persecution turned “witch” into an accusation that could get women tortured and killed. The Salem witch trials and European witch hunts targeted thousands of people, mostly women, creating a cultural association between witches and evil that persists today.
The modern Halloween witch is mostly stripped of historical accuracy and turned into a cartoonish figure of magic and mischief.
Teaching kids about witches means acknowledging both the fantasy version and the reality that “witch” was once a dangerous label used to harm innocent people.
We are going to be briefly talking about the Salem Witch Trials as we learn about this Halloween symbol.
On the worksheet you’ll find this information: The witch image comes from old European stories and fears. Real people were once accused of witchcraft unfairly, which is a serious part of history.
Ghosts
Ghosts might be the most accurate Halloween symbol because they directly represent what Samhain was all about: the dead crossing back into the world of the living.
The Celts believed that on Halloween night, the boundary separating our world from the spirit world thinned or dissolved. Ghosts of ancestors could return to visit their families, but malevolent spirits could also slip through.
People wore costumes and masks to confuse evil spirits, left food offerings to appease wandering souls, and told ghost stories around fires to honor the dead. This belief system traveled with Irish immigrants to the United States and became embedded in American Halloween traditions.
The white sheet ghost, floating transparently through old houses, taps into deep human questions about what happens after we die. Even people who don’t believe in literal ghosts respond to the imagery because it represents the unknown.
On the worksheet you’ll find this information: Ghosts connect to Samhain, when people believed spirits could cross into our world. Today we associate a ghost as a friendly or spooky “spirit” from a story.
How to Use the Free Halloween Symbols Worksheet
There’s no right or wrong way to use the printable. Kids can color the pictures, cut out the mini-books, and glue them anywhere on the page.
Each mini book can be opened to reveal information kids write or the optional text included in the printable.
Please keep this printable for personal and class use only.
Why Understanding Halloween Symbols Actually Matters
Teaching kids about these symbols helps them connect things they see in society and popular culture to history.
We are also going to be using what we learn about these Halloween symbols to compare them to the symbols of Dia de los Muertos.