The Halloween season is here and the community is excited for the festivities of the holiday. From dressing up in elaborate costumes to finding joy in the excitement of trick-or-treaters, Halloween always brings a fun spirit to the month of October.
One of the most common Halloween traditions is trick-or-treating, walking around your neighborhood and collecting candy from each house. This tradition has expanded over time to include more unconventional methods of candy collecting in different communities.
Saleya Scott ‘25 shares one of her favorite trick-or-treat traditions, saying, “One of my family traditions and Halloween traditions that we do every time is we go to church. We listen to a sermon and then we go to trunk-or- treat, where we go to each trunk that the pastor set up and we say ‘trick or treat!’.” After the trunk-or-treat, she says, “we dress up and play a bunch of games.”
Another popular Halloween tradition is dressing up in a costume, a tradition that students are excited to participate in. Charley Bowles ‘26 states, “I like coming to school dressed up on Halloween and seeing some of my friends also in their costumes.” Bowles also finds enjoyment in the Halloween atmosphere at school saying, “I like when SIAC puts up decorations, and the spider in the library.” Bowles also enjoys the trick-or-treating tradition, but in a different manner. She states, “I really enjoy spending time with my mom passing out candy,” rather than going trick-or-treating herself.
As highschool students, trick-or-treating becomes increasingly less common of a tradition, and instead many students opt to pass out candy instead. Staying home to greet trick-or-treaters gives students an opportunity to reflect on the fond memories from their childhood Halloweens and appreciate the excitement of younger kids. Reagan Schoen ‘26 says that her favorite thing about Halloween is how she “gets to see all the little kids when I’m handing out candy and see how excited they are.” Schoen added, “I think ‘aww I used to do that’ and so now it’s just cute and their costumes are so cute.”
