It was a dark and stormy night…
At least, that’s what the weather forecast predicted. Thank goodness it was not like that last weekend!
Because Halloween is on a Wednesday this year, many festivities happen during the weekend before Halloween. My Halloweekend kicked off on Saturday when I put together my outfit.
I AM GROOT!
And yes, I got to say “I am Groot” the rest of the weekend.
My first stop was the Beta Upsilon Chi (BYX) House, Yale’s only Christian fraternity. This year, they transformed four levels of their house into four different escape rooms, each with a unique theme: Myer’s House, A Quiet Place, Murder Mystery, and the Bomb Squad. My group failed to escape the Murder Mystery room, but I was amazed by the intricacy of their puzzles: jars filled with mysterious substances, a syringe, blacklight, hidden messages, and the periodic table.
Our escape room group! #squadghouls
A friend whose group successfully escaped Myers’s House recounted his scary experience, admitting he screamed. The last clue involved a nerf gun along with a note that read, “You only have one shot.” The lights flickered and went out. Michael Myers himself appeared in the doorway and strode towards the group, who shrieked. Someone then took the gun and calmly fired it at Myers. Their group had escaped within an inch of their lives.
My friend’s escape room group, featuring Myers himself.
Afterwards, I went to the Halloween Party at Christian Union’s off-campus Ministry House. Lovingly nicknamed the Mouse, the space acts as a homebase for our bible course groups, 1:1 meetings with ministry fellows, worship sessions and game nights. That night, with the help of a fog machine, the Mouse became a mysterious place decked with orange and black streamers, filled with the scent of pumpkin pie. We snacked on cute Halloween themed food and played improv and board games.
Cookie Arach-nibbles!
Pumpkin cuties!
Broomsticks
Boo-tiful Bites!
Later, a group of friends and I headed to Pierson Inferno, Pierson College’s annual Halloween bash. Maybe it is called the Inferno because the temperature literally rises twenty degrees on the crowded dance floor. Because it is free and fun, a ton of Yalies turn up in their costumes, ready for a spooktastic time. With cool lights, good music, and a resting area stocked with snacks, Pierson Inferno did not disappoint.
Pierson Inferno was FIRE.
On Wednesday night I went to the famous Yale Symphony Orchestra show! YSO’s annual tradition is well-loved by the student body. At precisely 11:59pm on Halloween, the orchestra members–decked out in group costumes–pick up their instruments and accompanies an hour-long original silent film featuring their own members. Last year’s movie was a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast— this year, it was a a Stranger Things-themed story about Yale students thwarting a mysterious Harvard cult from taking over New Haven. YSO played snippets of famous theme songs, pop songs, and orchestral symphonies. The film included jabs at our fellow Ivy League schools, jokes about Yale life, and cameos by Stephen Colbert, Jodie Foster, as well as SNL’s Michael Che and Colin Jost. By the end of the movie, Yalies were able to save our campus through the power of friendship and camaraderie.
An orchestra section taking the stage as Toy Story!
Silent film intertitle.
YSO members wrote, directed, produced, and acted in their own film.
This past weekend, my friends and I had an unBOOlievable time, from simultaneously scrambling for costumes to stuffing ourselves with pumpkin pie, solving a murder mystery to enjoying a spooky symphony. Halloween didn’t transform campus–it simply brought out the silly, fun-loving, and creative child in all of us.
“I’m going to my friends. I’m going home.” - Eleven, Stranger Things
Last year’s costume: Thor, god of thunder.
