As the sun begins to set earlier and the leaves darken, a season of spookiness settles upon us – Halloween. People are beginning to decorate their houses and carve pumpkins, but for what?
Ottawa is currently back in stage two, and Halloween is sort of a no-go. So, we used this opportunity to allow students to share their plans with us and reflect on how they celebrated in previous years.
On Monday, Oct. 19, Algonquin Times reporters set out to campus for a mood check to get a feel for what students are up to this spooky season. The majority of the campus’ population was in study mode in light of due to midterm week.
Paramedics student, Martin Schrappe, is feeling the heat from schoolwork and hasn’t put much thought into his plans for this year.
“I’m not sure if I have plans, I’m pretty busy with school so probably not,” Schrappe said.
A group of biotechnology students don’t have much lined up either, but had fun stories to share about their past celebrations.
“There’s nothing to do this year,” said Jessica Mapila, a biotechnology student. “Me and my friends used to all dress up in group costumes. One year, we were all Dr. Seuss characters.”
Like Mapila, Dara Palmer and Alex Graf have plans to candy and watch scary movies.
Palmer shared fun stories from her childhood years of trick-or-treating.
“As a kid, my favourite thing was going to expensive houses and neighbourhoods,” she said. “There you’d get all the good candy, like full-sized chocolate bars and cans of pop.”
An electrical engineering technician student, Gurpartap Singh, remembers his favourite costume.
“My favourite costume as a kid was pretty simple, just a ghost,” Singh said.
Singh’s classmate, Aditya Shah, is an international student and it’s his first Halloween in Ottawa. He wants it to be special but is celebrating in an interesting and safe way.
“My work is going to give us costumes to wear from the movie IT,” said Shah. “Maybe even the clown costume from the movie.”
Emma Pearce, a travel and tourism student, and her friend, Maggie Street, a library and information technician student both celebrated Halloween on campus last year.
“I was in residence so I would just go to different rooms dressed up as the Arthur meme,” said Pearce.
“One year I dressed up as a clothing hamper, which was cool,” said Street. “I had suspenders on and attached a clothing hamper to them with hangers and clothes on it.”
Jackson Kemp, a business marketing student, was also with Pearce and Street. While he doesn’t have plans this year, he remembers celebrating as a kid.
“One year I went to a dance studio in Kingston that set up a haunted house inside when I was younger,” said Kemp.
Halloween will look different this year, with Ontario health officials recommending people in hot-spot areas to skip door-to-door trick or treating.
Whether it be decorating, dressing up, watching Halloween-themed movies or skipping trick-or-treating and binge-eating candy, people are finding ways to celebrate safely within the comfort of their own homes.