Three Little Pumpkins

Enjoy three different approaches to Halloween by the Marketing Department’s Student Workers:

A Superstitious Approach, by Charis Ochu

I grew up in a Nigerian home where Halloween was perceived as a festivity with witchcraft connotations. We also have so many superstitious beliefs that I find to be very amusing now.

One of these superstitions is that black cats are human witches that transformed into cats. When I was younger, I fully believed this without any doubt. Whenever a black cat passed the roof of our home, I would start praying because I thought this was a witch out to get me. I realize this sounds silly! You can imagine my mom’s shock when my younger sister adopted a black cat.

As a result of my background, I never really celebrated Halloween back home. Moving here, I realized most people view Halloween as a time of the year to play dress up with friends and loved ones. My favorite Halloween tradition is dressing cozily and watching a scary movie or two with friends. Sometimes, we dress up and have impromptu photoshoots. I wish I had more funny escapades, but that is all for now. 

A Tactical Approach, by Landry French

As a child, my Halloween experience was about making trick-or-treating as efficient as possible. With my mom, my siblings and I drove from neighborhood to neighborhood, visiting as many houses as we could in a short time frame. After leaving our neighborhood, the first stop would be the “rich neighborhoods” in town since they give out more and better candy than everyone else. From there, we would go by density (going to the neighborhoods with the most houses).

When the porch lights turned off, we returned home and unpacked our spoils. Since I did not like nuts or peanut butter, I would trade those candies for Dots or Laffy Taffy. We would be so efficient that each of us kids would have enough candy to last until Christmas. After trick-or-treating, I would finish the night by watching Halloween specials and eating candy before bed.  

As a college student, I find myself rather busy but still able to attend some parties here and there. I appreciate the excellent food and good company (but mostly the food). I still enjoy the childlike joy I can have this time of year, seeing different costumes and occasionally dressing up myself. I wish I could go trick-or-treating as I did as a kid, but I make up for it by preparing treats like sugar cookies and getting discounted candy from the store in the days after Halloween. Even as an adult, though, I still love to kick back and watch Halloween specials and eat some candy when the time comes. (Not scary movies, though. Ask Charis for recommendations.)

A Traditional Approach, by Madison Lewis

Growing up in a Christian household, Halloween was not our family’s favorite holiday to celebrate. That, of course, does not mean we didn’t have fun. We all love to dress up, whether for a school project, event, or in this case, Halloween. I remember going to my church’s Fall Festival for many years. Some years, we did go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. I’ll never forget when I dressed up in a disco outfit about fourth or fifth grade and went trick-or-treating with a friend the same age. I wore tall boots and sunglasses, which I guess made me look older because the lady at the door gave my friend candy but not me, thinking I was a parent or some older sibling accompanying her! I soon realized just how quickly I was growing up. 

Madison dressed as “Taco Belle.”

To this day, I still enjoy dressing up for college Halloween events or church activities (we like to call it the Reformation Day Celebration instead), usually dressing up in some silly or punny costume.