By Elizabeth Youssef

Halloween. A time of horrific and thrilling fun. Whether you go all out for halloween or not, it is truly a captivating time of year.

   October 31, the eve of All Saints’ Day, is an odd celebration where children dress up in costumes and trick or treat at strangers homes in hope of candy.

   Halloween is a good time to let your personality truly shine through costume.

   “My favorite costume I have worn was my Thing 1 (Dr. Seuss) costume,” RJR senior KC Ogborn said.

   Others, such as senior Rachael Whalen, have classic costumes that are always an option.

   “Halloween costumes that never go out of style are Harry Potter themed ones,” Whalen said.

   A lot of thought goes in to what costume to wear. Halloween is a significant part of childhood. You can be whoever or whatever you want for the night.

   Classic halloween costumes include fairies, pirates, witches, wizards, ghosts, zombies, star wars characters, super heros, etc.

   “My favorite costume that I have ever worn was Katniss Everdeen [from the Hunger Games] I had a bow and everything,” Whalen said.

   Another huge part of Halloween is the decorations. Buying pumpkins from a pumpkin patch, making jack-o’-lanterns and putting cobwebs and grim reapers in yards are among students favorite traditions.

   It is also the beginning of pumpkin and pumpkin spice season, making it a sacred time for some. Pumpkins spice lovers can get their fix at Krispy Kreme with pumpkin spice doughnuts, Starbucks with pumpkin spice lattes or at Trader Joes with other pumpkin treats.

   Halloween is also an exciting and stressful time for parents as they help their kids with costumes and take them trick or treating.

   “From a parental perspective Halloween is way more exciting and exhausting,” English teacher Stephanie Walters said. “There is so much anticipation that goes into halloween that I never really thought of before until I saw my kids go through it and that has made me more excited to see their reactions.”

   Another way to celebrate Halloween is watching horror movies. When you get too old to trick or treat or if you do not live in a neighborhood with a lot of trick or treaters, sitting down with a bag of candy corn and a classical like “The Evil Dead” is the perfect way to celebrate

   “Now if I’m not going trick or treating I usually just chill at home and watch horror movies,” Whalen said. “I live in the country so we don’t get many trick or treaters.”

   All of this just goes to show, go hard or go home when it comes to dressing up for Halloween. It is was more fun to just go for it.

   “The best part about Halloween is that you get to see so much creativity,” Whalen said. Of course there are always the people who barely try but I really like it when people go all out.”

Photo Provided by Creative Commons