As the orange and red leaves begin to fall, and autumn commences with cozy indicators of the changing season like sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, warm apple cider, fall decorations around the house, cloudy days, pumpkin patches and costume planning, the year starts to transition into holiday central. Halloween candy and yard decorations as well as Spirit Halloween stores have begun to appear in the San Mateo area in preparation for the spooky holiday on Oct. 31.
However, in California, where the weather still reaches 80 degrees in early October, wildfire smoke is congesting the air, a global pandemic has forced people to stay home and schools to go online. It’s safe to say Halloween definitely will not be the same as in past years.
“We are going to spread the Halloween vibe into every aspect of Aragon”
Popular Halloween activities such as trick-or-treating with friends or get-togethers are no longer allowed. According to San Mateo County Health’s Halloween Safety Guidance, events or parties should only include household members or a household social bubble that is no more than 12 people. That means many friends and families will not be able to celebrate Halloween together in-person and will have to find other safe alternatives.
Math teacher Alice Hu normally enjoys Halloween with her kids and her brother’s family by going trick-or-treating together. This year, Hu is still planning for a substitute activity to celebrate Halloween, while still abiding by health and safety protocols in place.
“I don’t want to completely skip it,” Hu said. “I want to still try to do things that are normal as much as we can.”
At Aragon, Hu would normally participate in the Halloween Rally staffulty costume contest. Rally Commission Head senior Claire Phillips has confirmed it will still occur, but now in a virtual format. Additionally, the student costume contest will also occur as the Leadership class Rally Commission has been working to convert the Halloween Rally that would’ve taken place on Friday, Oct. 30, into virtual events throughout the month of October.
“We are turning the entire month of October into ‘Donstober,’” Phillips said. “We are going to spread the Halloween vibe into every aspect of Aragon, from classes to social media. There are going to be a ton of different challenges that the student body can look forward to both participating in and watching peers compete in.”
While the rally among other Halloween festivities at Aragon will be missed by many students, the highlight for sophomore Etueni Georgievski is the costumes.
“At school, I look forward to showing off my costume. Usually I get with my friends, and we do a group costume,” Georgievski said. “Usually it’s fictional characters, and I take my fictional character and make it look demonic. I am going to take advantage of [dressing up] every year before I turn 18, until I’m officially too old.”
Georgievski’s Halloween traditions include going trick-or-treating with friends, and then dividing the candy equally among themselves. Due to COVID-19 regulations, Georgievski has altered his plans for Halloween and is inviting a few friends over to watch a movie in his backyard, dressing up, eating candy and having a good time.
The City of San Mateo Parks and Recreation department is hosting a Halloween event called the Halloween CAR-nival. San Mateo Community Services Coordinator Brandon Parra oversees city-wide special events and the Halloween CAR-nival is one that is modified to comply with COVID-19 regulations.
“The theme of the Halloween CAR-nival event will allow participants to have some interaction and play carnival style games,” Parra said. “Participants will drive up to each booth and play the games from their car, [while] keeping them safe and socially distanced.”
This event will be the first city-wide special event in 2020 since all previous ones have been cancelled. Usually city-wide special events attract thousands of residents per year, so the Halloween CAR-nival is still expecting over 850 residents, with tickets sold out in advance.
“We are planning to be able to accommodate up to 72 cars during the 1-4 p.m. event time on both Saturday, Oct. 24 and Sunday, Oct. 25,” Parra said. “That is a total of 144 cars over the entire event, and if each car has a family of three to six people in each car, we are potentially able to provide this event for over 850 residents.”
This year, Halloween will be celebrated in a socially distanced manner, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a fun Saturday night on Oct. 31. You can still watch a scary or a not scary movie, tell spooky stories, dress up in your costume, carve pumpkins with your family in person or virtually with friends and overall have a spooktacular time.
