It’s Halloween at Yale, which means many things. The leaves are changing colors, students are becoming Regina Georges, Indiana Joneses, and Britney Spearses, and midterms are becoming a thing of the past. One of my favorite blessings that this time of year offers, though, is highly Yale-specific. Residential college Halloween transformations!
At Yale, there are 14 residential colleges where undergrads “experience the cohesiveness and intimacy of a small school while still enjoying the cultural and scholarly resources of a large university,” according to the Yale College website. In other words, it’s where you live for some portion of your time at Yale among a smaller subset of the student body. And in even less words, it’s where you live, eat, and have fun!
My ResCo, Pierson, as leaves fall.
Every residential college, or ResCo, has its own special spaces to offer, like pottery studios and printing presses in some or underground theaters and basketball courts in others. With all their own quirks, ResCos also celebrate holidays uniquely. One of my favorite parts about living in a ResCo is seeing how they decorate for Halloween in particular.
Some Jack-O-Lanterns from Pierson’s Pumpkin carving event!
Around my ResCo, Pierson College (go Knights), spooky decorations are taken pretty seriously. Pierson is the only residential college that throws a party during a night of Halloweekend with access to all students. Called “Pierson Inferno,” the Pierson dining hall turns into a disco, and everyone is able to bring their friends across Yale to get into costume and get down on the dance floor.
Disco underway…
Pierson isn’t the only ResCo that does Halloween full-out, though. The night of Halloween, I ate dinner in the Jonathan Edwards dining hall. Their decorations definitely competed with Pierson. And their “blood” soup was pretty good…
My favorite part of Halloweekend, though, had to be celebrating with my suitemates, eating desserts outdoors in Pierson’s courtyard. Pumpkin pie and Piersonites have my heart <3!
Happy Haunting from Yale!
