Blazers say ‘boo'

Entering through the cobwebbed portal, junior Rita Mitchell walks past the figure lurking in the shadows behind the door. Slowly and stealthily, the figure sneaks behind her and, raising its arms, prepares to strike.

"BOO!” screams Mitchell's friend junior Krista Lee as she simultaneously jabs her victim on either side of her stomach. They tumble to the floor, cracking up in bouts of laughter. "She really scared the crap out of me,” says Mitchell, remembering the Halloween party they both attended last year.

Lee was not the only one there with such plans. "I'd be watching the movie, and [my friends] would go, ‘Boo!' and I'd jump up, like, 5 feet in the air,” says Lee, grumbling. "They didn't even sneak up on me.”

Halloween parties such as these are fairly popular at Blair. In an informal survey of 100 Blazers, 78 percent said that they celebrate Halloween and 25 of those 78 said that they attend Halloween parties and chill with friends.

Party hosts and hostesses often decorate their houses with eye-catching ornaments. "We had bats and cobwebs and the skull thing that when you pass, it goes, ‘Mwahahahaha,'” says Mitchell. A tracing of Mitchell's body lay across the driveway in an imitation of police tracings of murder victims.

Trick, not treat

Of course, along with the traditional parties and trick-or-treating, Halloween enjoys its own special brands of patrons: the pranksters. Ten out of the 100 Blazers surveyed admit to falling into this category, forming a reasonably large minority at Blair.

Lee and Mitchell represent mild cases of the prankster class, but hardcore Halloween prank pullers take their scary shows to the streets. "I dress up wearing nothing but a diaper and a bottle and just stand in front of the house,” says senior Yenikah Fon. "Half of them just kind of pass on by, but the other half…,” he trails off, grinning devilishly.

Freshman Gabriel Moges hides out in the bushes before jumping his targets, but he doesn't believe scaring little children is appropriate. "I just scare middle schoolers and up,” he says.

Junior Eddy Wang is another adolescent trickster who enjoys scaring the children trick-or-treating at his door. "I jump out at them with an axe!” he exclaims, chuckling. "It's not really a big axe,” he adds, pausing, "just a small woodcutting one.”

However, not everyone approves of such pastimes. "Scaring kids is mean. You could ruin their Halloween for them forever,” says Lee, shaking her head angrily.

That pagan holiday

Some Blazers, however, have never celebrated Halloween. Sophomore Felecia Olawuni, doesn't participate in the festivities for religious reasons. "My parents say that it's a kind of devilish holiday, like [the Devil's] birthday or something, and dressing up or doing scary things are like Hell,” she says.

However, this does not hamper her relationship with friends who trick-or-treat. "I think [dressing up] is really creative,” says Olawuni.

Junior George Yergen has also never celebrated Halloween. "My mom thinks that this is an evil holiday,” explains Yergen. This year, however, Yergen plans to break tradition. Although he will not go trick-or-treating, he plans on attending the Fright Fest at Six Flags America. "I don't know if I will dress up or not. It depends on whether my sister does.”

On the other hand, some mothers rejoice at the prospect of Halloween. "My mom's something of a pagan,” says freshman Alex Demarais. "Every year, we go buy an English indigenous tree and burn it.” Regardless, Demarais himself still participates in the normal Halloween activity of trick-or-treating.

Free candy

While society in general has put an age limit on trick-or-treating, 38 of the 100 surveyed Blazers said that they still engage in the activity, most citing free candy as the dominant reason for going out. While junior Corinne Bell also goes out for the candy, she truly has fun dressing up and playing the part. "You get to act, and you need to stay in character,” she says.

Last year, Bell and her sister both dressed up as elderly dancers, stuffing pillows under their shirts. Ringing on the doorbell or knocking, the two sisters would begin dancing as soon as someone appeared at the door. "We had fun and [the person giving out candy] was entertained, so we got a lot of candy,” says Bell.

Bell kept up the act even while walking from door to door. "We would be hunched over, with our bags slung over our backs,” she says in a creaky, halting voice as she mimics the unsteady posture of an old granny.

Bell says that she feels no guilt when younger children appear at the door handing out candy and doesn't care whether or not her friends or society at large approve either. "I'd do it anyways, in spite of them. Why should I give up something just because I'm a certain age?”