The season for scares is here! Halloween came to FCC last week, that time where everyone donned a costume and engaged in delights of frightful festivity. Few this year were as festive as the students and staff of Frederick Community College. On the 31st of October, FCC held an all-day celebration in the Student Center.
Students who arrived in costume each received a complimentary meal voucher to the Cougar Grill. This year saw a relative increase in costumed individuals when compared to previous years. Particularly, the participation for the annual costume contest included a wide variety of creatively designed attire. These ranged from such likenesses as Goku from Dragon Ball Z to DoodleBob from SpongeBob SquarePants.
In addition to housing the costume contest, the Student Center served as a place for students to mingle and discuss their favorite aspects of the holiday, whether it be trick or treating with friends, telling scary stories or seeing their favorite characters all around them.
“The fact that it’s a group holiday that you spend with your friends rather than at home with your family,” student Keegan Santoroski said when asked what his favorite part of Halloween is. “Traditions that get passed down through generations like trick or treat and urban legends,” student Autumn Jones said. “I just love Scooby-Doo, and Scooby is everywhere on Halloween,” student Joseph Klubi said.
As a holiday with close ties to pop culture, Halloween is constantly changing. What had once started as a pagan harvest festival has become what some call a celebration of commercialized fear, but not everyone feels this way. Some people see Halloween as their one day to dress up as anything and anyone they want, without adhering to the expectation that girls have to be princesses and boys have to be superheroes. In fact, a young woman dressed as Doug and LiMu Emu from the popular Liberty Mutual advertisements was awarded third place in the costume contest.
The celebration also allows much time for reflection on Halloween memories. “When I went trick or treating as a kid, I used to dress up as a clown,” Klubi said. Many students reminisce over their favorite experiences of the holiday. “One year, my ex-boyfriend and I went trick or treating with my siblings all night, then we went to a Halloween party,” Jones said.
Halloween is the perfect time to be a horror fan, as it celebrates everything dark and macabre. FCC students were excited to rewatch their favorite scary movies. “I really like the new ‘It’ movie, just the way it gets you invested in the characters” Klubi said, “and the clown is scary because you don’t know much about him. He could do anything at any time!”
Students like Santoroski and Jones are more partial to long-running horror franchises, “Insidious was pretty good,” Santoroski said “Either that or Saw.” Jones agrees with this sentiment. “The Saw movies are great,” she said, “I love that it is genuinely a bloody horror-fest and I love the moral choices characters are forced to make and the psychological impact it has on them.”
Of course, no Halloween would be complete without candy. Students took time out of the day to enjoy their favorite sugary treats. “I love Milky Ways,” Klubi said, “I eat them as a snack.” “Heath bars are so good!” said Jones. Some cannot pick just one favorite candy though. When asked which wrapped delicacy he prefers, Santoroski said, “Probably gotta be Snickers or Twix.”
Another Halloween has come and gone for the people of Frederick who will count the days until Candy Corn hits the supermarket shelves again next year.
