By Angelina Tang
October is already coming to an end, but you know what that means: Halloween is here! In the spirit of spooky season, we at the East Side News hosted an informal survey about East’s thoughts regarding the holiday.
Of the over 250 students who replied to our survey, 30.6% are going to a party, while 27.1% are hanging out with friends. 17.4% are trick or treating as their primary activity, 6.2% are going to watch a horror movie, and a happy 16.3% will stay at home and relax, enjoy some sweet treats, hand out candy, or simply not celebrate the holiday. Some students reported doing multiple or all of the activities at hand–no matter what you do Halloween night, we hope you have fun and stay safe out there! Seniors facing the November 1st early decision deadline–we empathize with your fight, too. Stay strong.
When quizzed on their favorite Halloween motif, students had a wide variety of opinions. 38.7% like the classic Jack o Lantern. As a slight tangent–this tradition actually originated from Ireland. According to Irish myth, a man named Stingy Jack tricked the Devil and coerced him into not claiming his soul. Eventually, when Jack did die, neither God nor the Devil would take him, so he was sent back into the mortal realm as a wandering spirit with nothing but a burning coal to light his way. He put this coal in a make-shift lantern made of a hollowed-out turnip; as a result, he was called “Jack of the Lantern,” which was then shortened to “Jack o’ Lantern.” The Irish people carved turnips, too, and hung them up outside of their houses to frighten away spirits like Stingy Jack’s.
That aside, 24.6% of students prefer ghosts, 17.6% of students prefer black cats, and 7% of students prefer vampires. The rest of the student body is split between witches, bats, and zombies, and one singular student said they liked mummies. Poor mummies.
Now, onto East’s candy preferences. There is a very slight leaning towards chocolate-y candies for the general population, as roughly 70% of students enjoy some kind of chocolate candy, such as Kit Kats, Reeses, Twix, Crunch bars, or Snickers. Although students enjoying their fruity-flavored candy are in the minority, Sour Patch got the highest overall number of students uniting in their love for it, pulling 20.9% of the votes. Also, on a more light-hearted note, the pie chart illustrating this data shows why offering an “other” option in surveys creates rather difficult data to decipher. It’s quite amusing to the eye.
Finally, in regards to holiday traditions–66.4% of students carve pumpkins, while 33.6% opt to put their knives down. If you don’t want to get your hands on those pumpkin guts, another great alternative is painting them. Or, if you want to avoid a mess, getting one of those tiny pumpkins to carve is another great option.
On Halloween, surprisingly, only 59.8% of students reported that they will be wearing their costume to school. Whether this is because of a lack of spirit or because their costumes are not in compliance with dress code is another question, but when quizzed about what their costumes would be, the general consensus was that we, as burnt out high-schoolers, like to procrastinate. Of the people who responded to the question, 29% reported that they did not know what they wanted to wear yet. The rest of the costume ideas are extraordinarily diverse, with there being several cats, vampires, Taylor Swifts, Wednesday Addamses, and Kool Aid Men in the mix.
Whether you’re celebrating or not, this spooky season is sure to bring good vibes and high spirits for all of East. We at the East Side News wish you a happy Halloween! Stay safe and have fun.
