Beth Teutschmann
Halloween photo from Unsplash
In America, about 69% of our population celebrates Halloween, according to Firework. Halloween originated in the mid-19th century from Irish and Scottish immigrants. They brought their traditions to us, and though each family may have their own versions of Halloween traditions, we still carry them on each year.
As for New Hartford senior Grayson Gall and science teacher Mr. Frank DuRoss, their traditions are fairly similar each year.
Each year, when Halloween comes around, Grayson strategically chooses her costume for Halloween night. She picks a different costume each year. One of her first and favorites being a soccer ball, and she is excited to dress as a Flight Attendant this year. Dressing up isn’t her only tradition, though it is her favorite; she still enjoys helping her mom hand out candy to everyone who comes to her door. When she was younger, her favorite tradition was going trick-or-treating with all her friends and trading candy at the end of the night while watching her favorite Halloween movie, Hocus Pocus. Grayson loved to trade for Kit Kats, since they “are chocolaty and have a nice little crunch.”
Contrary to Grayson’s top Halloween movie choice, Mr. DuRoss’s favorite Halloween movie is Nightmare on Elm Street. Growing up in a different time period than Grayson, Mr. Duross has his own traditions. Mr. DuRoss’s top traditions for Halloween are carving pumpkins and eating the seeds, and hand out candy to all the kids that come by his house.
In contrast with his love for pumpkin seeds, he claims, “I do not like pumpkin-flavored anything.”
Nevertheless, Mr. DuRoss doesn’t dress up much anymore on Halloween. His favorite costume from the past was his Ernie costume from Sesame Street, which had a plastic mask with it.
Both Grayson and Mr. DuRoss has Halloween traditions, each unique in its own way. If you don’t have any traditions of your own, there is no need to fret. New Hartford Key Club will be holding their annual Halloween carnival on October 24 from 5-8 pm in the High School gym. You can buy 25 tickets for 20 dollars.
Key Club president, Nicole Zuniga, says that the carnival is open to all who would like to attend, and any student who would like to volunteer can email her. Nicole joined Key Club as soon as she got to New Hartford during her sophomore year. If you are interested in attending the fair, there will be concessions, arcade games, and a cake walk. Also, a fan favorite will be returning to the fair– the Haunted House– which will be located in the girls’ gym locker room.
“…I absolutely love decorating and interacting with the kids with my friends,” said Key Club President Nicole Zuniga.
Key Club members, including Norah Taylor-O’Connell, look forward to these fall festivities.
She also loves helping set up the carnival which entails hanging many lights, putting on Halloween music on and setting up the decorations in the haunted house. She also enjoys watching the haunted house volunteers getting into costume and putting on their masks.