It’s finally October, which means that Halloween is right around the corner! This is everyone’s favorite time of year to watch scary movies, dress up, and eat a ton of candy. However, as time goes on, the meaning of Halloween tends to change for people. Upon entering high school, it seems to be the trend that kids are no longer going trick-or-treating. Gone are the days of celebrating Halloween by watching a horror film or dressing up. Times have changed, so let’s learn about the new Halloween.
Freshman may experience the biggest change in their Halloween this year. Ninth grade student, Aiden Heiman explains his thoughts on the holiday: when asked if he will be dressing up, Heiman responded, “I am not dressing up because I feel that we are at the age where we don’t need to go out and spend money on costumes that we are going to wear for one night only.” The consensus of being too old to dress up is popular amongst high schoolers, especially boys.
The opinion of wasteful spending on costumes is popular among students as well. When asked if he will be going trick-or-treating, Heiman replied, “I have not yet decided if I will go out for trick-or-treating, it all depends on what I’m doing the night of Halloween.” Based on Heiman’s responses, it seems to be that Halloween isn’t as big of a deal as it used to be. Students don’t seem to care much about costumes or dressing up.
Another ninth grade student, Siena Piacente, explained her thoughts on these topics. Regarding dressing up, Piacente said, “This year for Halloween, I am dressing up as a Girl Scout,”. In order to decide on her costume, she stated, “At first I had no idea on what to be, I asked a lot of my friends for ideas and they all suggested different things. One friend suggested Girl Scouts and I decided I liked that the best.”
Commenting on trick-or-treating, Piacente replied, “I stopped trick-or-treating a few years ago. I never really liked trick-or-treating in the first place so one year I just stopped and started to hang out with friends.” Both Heiman and Piacente agreed that they are “too old” when it comes to trick-or-treating. Piacente stated that she would rather hang out with her friends at parties instead of going trick-or-treating. Many students feel that they have outgrown going from door to door and screaming “trick-or-treat!” For High Schoolers, spending time with friends is more enjoyable.
Halloween is a holiday for all ages, Ms.Elizabeth Campbell, a teacher in the Blind Brook Special Education Department said, “The Special Education Department plans on dressing up together as being on a ski vacation.” She continued, “In order to pick a costume, every year we consider what would be easy for everyone to do as a group. Since last year we dressed up as a Hawaiian vacation we decided to do the opposite, to keep us warm in the school this year.” Similar to the students, Campbell will not be trick-or-treating, “I will not be trick-or-treating because I will be handing out candy at my house after volleyball practice.” When asked if most teachers and educators dress up, she replied, “I think that a lot of teachers dress up. It is fun to get to dress up, especially to do a fun group costume with your co-workers.”