Cue: “This is Halloween” from A Nightmare Before Christmas
I know Halloween is now over. BUT, Halloween is probably one of my favorite events that takes place during the school semester. It’s truly an extended event––not just one night––at Yale that lasts at least two consecutive weekends. But more than the get-togethers, I am obsessed with spooky stuff, especially horror films (although it takes a lot to truly scare me) and will watch scary movies in the dark by myself (I know that’s crazy). And because I’m too old to do trick-or-treating so I spend the week eating a lot of candy (I stocked up on my candy of choice: twix) and preparing my costume.
This year was more difficult to plan because of COVID-19. Usually the weekend before Halloween day, I do a haunted trail with my dance team called Trail-of-Terror. We all bundle up and head over to Wallingford, CT to experience a 1-hour trail full of spooky houses (usually based on horror movies) and actors whose sole job is to scare you. Then, I usually dress up and my former suitemates and I would throw a Halloween party. But, sadly that couldn’t happen either.
Regardless of the limitations, my roommates and I were able to plan one of the most fun Halloween weekends I’ve ever had at Yale. I’m going to take you through how we made Halloween so special, given the circumstances, and even though Halloween has passed, these are things you can do with your potential suitemates next year! More importantly, I hope this emphasizes how a great group of people and some ingenuity is really all you need to have fun on campus (even during a pandemic).
Do a fun group costume! We spent a long time deciding what we’d be and unfortunately some costumes did not arrive on time, which required so last-minute ideas, but nonetheless we pulled off a group costume. Together my suite was the Trumbull dining hall staff with a chef, a baker, a Trum-Bull, and a random assortment of foods. And then we went to dinner dressed in our costumes and the dhall staff loved it! I was an egg and if you want to see my shenanigans, go check out this Halloween video on tik-tok:
Ima world record egg #happyhalloween#eggchallenge#explorepage#fyp#Yale#imanegg
user811786319217 (@holaitsgianna) has created a short video on TikTok with music World Record Egg Song. | Ima world record egg #happyhalloween#eggchallenge#explorepage#fyp#Yale#imanegg
Plan trick-or-treating in your suite! Everyone in my room got their favorite candy paired with a Halloween-inspired mocktail, and we went from door to door (within our suite) to trick-or-treat. For my stop, I made a lemonade, sprite, and fanta soda mocktail with sour patch gummy worms. I had swedish fish and sour-patch candies on the side. My favorite stop however was my roommate Jerry’s root-beer float with vanilla ice cream and crushed kit-kats and twix (it was sooo delicious). We filmed each stop and it felt like trick-or-treating!
My suitemates and I in our costumes and the dining hall decor!
Do a fun outdoor activity! I was missing the thrill of Trail-of-Terror this year but still got to do a fun Halloween outdoor activity. Because we are First-Year Counselors, we were technically on duty from 10PM-2AM so we planned an outdoor, socially-distanced candy egg hunt for first-years (and reaped the benefits of all the extra candy). It was so fun for the first-years but also for us to hide all the eggs in the courtyard.
Stream the YSO show and a SPOOKY movie. The YSO show is an annual Halloween event at Yale where the Yale Symphony Orchestra debuts the “movie” they’ve been working on all semester, with scores in the background performed by YSO members. This year, we streamed the show in our room with a projector (usually you can go in person at Woolsey Hall) and it was such a good time. And since we already had the projector set up so we proceeded to watch a SPOOKY movie (Ready or Not, which actually ended up being a great dark comedy critiquing class).
And finally, LOTS OF FOOD! We bought a grocery-store cookie cake, had a ton of candy, and ended the night with chicken nuggets from Garden Catering. There was truly no better way to celebrate Halloween.
Our Pumpin Cookie Cake
