by Tim Richie
When Spirit Halloween starts popping up around the city, it doesn’t take a genius to know that Halloween is just around the corner. With this thought in mind, we grabbed our costumes, pumpkins, and candy and asked the question of the season: what makes a perfect Halloween?
We all know that children (and some adults) and their mothers get excited when Halloween is near. But how do you know if one is truly satisfied with what they’re experiencing? Halloween is best known for the towering decorations, costumes, haunted houses, ghosts, pumpkins, and most importantly, trick-or-treating and the distribution of candy. But even with all of this on the table, we still don’t know if it equals a “perfect” Halloween.
To get to the bottom of this mystery, we’ve gathered different opinions from different students and teachers at the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts).
Beatriz Oliva, a Spanish teacher, gave a unique take on the holiday.
“I don’t particularly celebrate Halloween, but I do like to celebrate its close relative, Dia de los Muertos,” said Oliva. “I wasn’t raised with the idea of Halloween, and still don’t really understand it today.”
One trademark idea of Halloween is for people to wear costumes and be in awe at the sight of other people’s costumes and how they wish they’d been that creative beforehand.
According to USA Today, only 46 percent of people actually dress up for Halloween.
“In Salvador, where I grew up, only children celebrated Halloween by wearing costumes. The adults not really. It was mainly a holiday for the children to have fun.” Oliva said.
Oliva’s statement showed that adults don’t tend to care about Halloween as much as they did when they were young. Instead, they focus on fun for the children so that they can have memorable and sweet, no pun intended, Halloweens.
Now for the questions everyone’s been waiting for: what makes a perfect Halloween?. Search far and wide, and you will find many different interpretations for how someone’s Halloween could be perfect. Trick-or-treating with family and friends, going to parties, or quite simply just giving out candy from your own.
“A perfect Halloween, for me, would be for as long as everyone celebrating is staying safe,” Oliva said. While this was an answer we weren’t expecting from light years away, we were still glad someone is looking out and hoping that everyone is having a good and safe time while celebrating.
From what we compiled in the end, here’s our tips for a perfect Halloween:
- Be around friends and/or family
- Dress up in a costume to get that nostalgic feeling of being a kid
- Make sure you and those around you are being and staying safe
- Have lots of fun!
