A late night unlike no other captures attention as blinking colored lights and big inflatables shimmer throughout streets. Homeowners prepare to greet kids with bucket loads of candy on this Halloween night. Oct. 31 ranges from spooky carved pumpkins on front porches to even reminiscing of the nostalgic memories one may have from this holiday. Halloween is a holiday that is celebrated among thousands of people in the United States, who experience and celebrate it in different ways.
For Brady Estes and his family, a way to celebrate this holiday was with his community.
“My family does a block party and we invite the neighborhood over to have a barbecue,” Estes said.
Grace Cable also speaks of how she has a similar tradition in her courtyard.
“Every year [we have a] barbecue and soup beforehand, and [afterwards] we all take the little kids trick-or-treating,” Cable said.
With the comfort of his home, Mr. John Gonzales celebrates by relaxing and using the opportunity to binge old movies.
“I like to watch a lot of scary movies, and just go through a whole bunch of favorites. [Some being] “Scream,” the “Halloween,” “Friday the 13th,” [and] the “Chucky” movie,” Mr. John Gonzales said.
Another component most often looked forward to are the costumes worn during Halloween. However, this creates a great bonding activity of coordinating a fun theme of costumes to share among friends and family.
“I love dressing up. This year, I’m going to be Poison Ivy and my boyfriend is going to be Batman,” Grace Cable said.
Another part of what makes Halloween so popular is the preparation made for the holiday. For this spooky season, people have already made plans on setting up decorations and finding inspiration for costumes.
“[For Halloween we] stock up on candy [to] hand out [during] trick-or-treating, and [we] decorate the inside and outside of the house,” Estes said. In addition, others are going out to collect candy. “This Halloween, I am trick or treating with my BFFs and afterwards hang out,” Grace Chu said.
In addition to these preparations for the holiday, it gives reminiscent feelings to not only children, but also to older generations as well.
“When I was little, we had a haunted house every year which would take a few weeks to put together. Since all my siblings have graduated [now], we don’t really do them anymore,” Cable said.
While Halloween traditionally takes place in the neighborhood, there are also other ways to have fun with this holiday away from home.
Around this time of the year, fall carnivals are hosted at elementary schools such as Sunset Ranch, where they have booths with games and candy as prizes, and even their own haunted maze.
There are also pumpkin patches with the overall theme for this ghostly holiday; one of the most trending patches being Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm with over 2,400 reviews on Google in Wheatland, California. Besides pumpkin patches and fall carnivals, some people have their own unique way of indulging in this holiday.
“My friends and I get together and have a Halloween baseball game where we dress up and play in [our] costumes,” Estes said
Besides the candy and costumes that come with this holiday, there are also memories in these moments that can be shared and treasured.
Gonzales said, “I’ve just been excited and it makes me also appreciate my family because the day after is Dia de Los Muertos … so it just makes me think about everyone in my family.”
by CHRISTOPHER PHAM & TRINITY KIM
