Halloween 2021

Lead Editor: Olivia Pietruszewski Deputy Editor: Hannah Corbett

Halloween is a holiday that is widely celebrated, bringing up fond memories from our childhood of trick-or-treating and dressing up as whatever you want to be for just one night. Here’s what some of MMC’s students did to celebrate this year!

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A Quiet Halloween in NYC

By Averee Nelson Reporting From New York, New York

Since Halloween landed on a Sunday this year, the holiday went from a one-night event to a four-night event, starting on Thursday. I was amazed to see people posting their costumes on Thursday night on social media, and then even more amazed to see people all dressed up on the subway and on the streets so early. It was definitely a weird experience to be right in the thick of Halloween celebrations after not celebrating last year due to the pandemic. This year, I still didn’t partake in Halloween events the same way I did BC (Before Covid). My boyfriend and I made the most out of the weekend by going to see The French Dispatch, which was the first time we went to a movie theater since before the pandemic started. It felt weird to be going back to the way things used to be. Then the night before Halloween, we went to Fright Fest at Six Flags hosted by MMC’s SDA. I saw so many people dressed up in their costumes, and it made me so happy to see families all dressed up in the spirit of Halloween. My friends agreed to keep our masks on at the park, despite the overwhelming majority not wearing masks. We stayed safe while also having a great time. I have been taking so many precautions over the past year and a half, so this holiday really tested me and my comfort levels. It made me wonder if anyone in my generation really cares about getting the virus the way we used to… I am still unsure. This is the one holiday where masks are the perfect accessories for costumes, but I still did not see too many people masked up. This Halloween really put the pandemic into perspective for me and gave me a chance to reflect on how much things have actually changed. That is the nice part of having Halloween on a Sunday in NYC; it is oddly quiet and peaceful, and a nice time to reflect on the season and the past year.

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Halloween Haunts in Manhattan!

By Gabrielle Fiorella Reporting Live From Manhattan, New York

Walking around NYC on a normal day would warrant anyway seeing some interesting outfits, and Halloween brings out some even better costumes! People were so creative this year, and I’m not surprised given everything was canceled last year. Some honorable mentions are a full-blown Zoltar costume and a woman using an umbrella to turn into a jellyfish. I sadly couldn’t get pictures of either because I was in a car, but just take my word for it on how cool they were. The costumes I was compelled to take pictures of, are fun in nature don’t get me wrong, but I was laughing so hard at the fact that they were in the same place at the same time. The two builders right across the platform from each other, and the group of tablecloth ghosts. *cue Jack Stauber’s “Oh Klahoma” TikTok trend. I always loved seeing those videos because that was such a cute trend last year. Let’s bring it back. Anyway!; The real show stoppers, in my opinion, were the dogs!! I went to a Halloween event for my job on Halloween and there was the most adorable dog parade with all of them having the absolute cutest outfits. My two favorites (pictured) were the UPS delivery man dog and the sushi roll dog! Dogs in costumes, especially to this creation of a magnitude, bring me so much serotonin. I absolutely loved to see everyone’s costumes this year, two-legged and four-legged and I really can’t wait to see what next year brings.

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My Halloweekend

By Tess Schumacher Reporting from New York City, New York.

This Halloween for me was lots of fun, and I partook in celebrating the entire weekend as opposed to just Sunday which was the actual day of Halloween this year. On Saturday my night started out with just me and my boyfriend at his house. I was wearing an angel costume that he got for me along with my favorite black dress and some high heel back boots. My boyfriend was wearing a really cool mask he got where it connects to his phone and he can make any design or face appear on it. Along with that, he was wearing a suit and tie. The two of us later went to a party at one of his friends’ houses. We had drinks, hung out, and played a game of beer pong. I’m proud to say that I was the winner. I actually became pretty good friends with one of the girls there named Ash. My first picture below is an image of the two of us at a bar we ended up going to later on in the night called The Barnyard. The bar was lots of fun. I didn’t buy any drinks there because bar drinks are too expensive in my opinion. We did have a great time though listening and dancing to the loud music. There was a DJ and he was playing some awesome songs. A little while after getting to the bar, my boyfriend and I, along with one of his friends that was with us decided to get White Castle. I had never had it before and I ended up hating it. I nonetheless still had fun because I was with some great people. As the night came to a close, we got a ride home from one of our friend’s parents which was extremely kind of them. The next day I spent mostly just chilling at home with my boyfriend watching The Midnight Gospel, which is a very entertaining cartoon on Netflix that was made by the same person who created Adventure Time, which is one of my all-time favorite childhood shows. I also dressed up my cats in their Halloween costumes. My cat Boo was dressed as a cow, and my other cat Luna, who is in my second image below, was a strawberry.

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Watching the Halloween Parade (Kind Of)

By Rayiah Ross Reporting live from Manhattan, NY

Honestly, I didn’t even think Halloween was in the cards for me this year because I was so sure that I was going to have to work. We frosted a bunch of monster cupcakes that were so cute I almost bought them all myself. Sadly we didn’t have any candy to give to the kids, which really sucked to tell them when they came with their little trick-or-treat baskets. To my surprise, I did still have to work, but I opened the bakery instead of closing so I got out in more than enough time to have some fun. I originally assumed that my costume would be a ~magnolia bakery employee~ but once I realized that I had the majority of the day to myself, I had to quickly come up with a costume. To up the stakes, even more, my boss even allowed us to wear costumes to work which made it even more important for me to find something. So there I was, the day before Halloween, on the search for a last-minute costume when all of New York is sold out of everything. I even checked Target, but all of there’s Halloween stuff was switched out for Christmas decor. CHRISTMAS! It’s not even November yet. And I love Christmas more than anything in the world, but they weren’t helpful at all with my Halloween problem. Likely I’m a master at balling on a budget and I managed to put a costume together with absolutely zero cash and/or effort. My friends and I all dressed up as the cast of the Avatar and we spent hours doing our makeup while we watched Rocky Horror. Every Halloween we make an effort to go to the parade by washing square park, but we always show up late, and then everything is shut down. But this year… was no different. So we walked around for hours and ate in a diner wearing outrageous outfits. We saw a lot of the typical costumes like horror film villains and gory cheerleaders, but my favorite costumes are the ones that were so specific that people have to explain themselves. One guy was dressed up as a character from a Halloween episode of Friends. I don’t watch that show, so I couldn’t tell what his outfit was until I asked him. I really appreciate the super-niche outfits because you have to pay attention to detail if you want to get it right and it feels like there’s a lot of effort put into it. Despite the fact that we missed the parade, we still saw a ton of creative costumes and I think that’s what really matters. Maybe one day we’ll actually be on time for the parade, but I’m gonna be honest, I can’t imagine spending Halloween any other way.

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Tigers, and Wandas, But No Bears, Oh My!

By Natalie Davila Reporting From New York City, NY.

I was not planning on doing much for Halloween. I spend Friday and Saturday with my roommates partying and going all out with our costumes. By the time Sunday rolled around I was absolutely exhausted. All of us left the apartment a little later in the day in search of the Tiger King 2 pop-up at Washington Square Park. This was a strange pop-up offering mini tiger-inspired hairstyles and yes, mullets were included in that. My roommates and I decided to let the stylists curl our hair (well, not really mine) and put on flower crowns to embrace our inner Carol Baskins. My roommate, Lauren looked phenomenal with her curls so of course, I had to take a picture. Later on in the evening, we wanted to go to Insomnia Cookies to take advantage of their free cookies promotion for Halloween. The only rule was that we had to be in a costume. So naturally, we got back into our costumes for their delicious cookies. Hannah went all out and was wearing her Wanda attire, as pictured above. If anyone watched WandaVision then you understand why I took this photo in front of the movie theater. This weekend went much better than I originally thought. I was not expecting to have so much fun, and prior to Friday, I did not want to dress up. But I’m glad I went out. Let’s just hope that next Halloween includes no masks and no worrying about being in close capacity with strangers.

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No Sunday Scaries Here

By Alexis Stovall reporting from Miami, Florida

I have never truly resonated with Halloween and the idea of dressing up as a character and going out. I have always done it just because my friends have and why would I just stay home? However, this year I decided to do just that. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I used this time to decompress and catch up on sleep that I have been missing out on all week. Taking care of myself and placing boundaries with friends has been a big priority for me lately. Although my neighbors were throwing parties and screaming all down my hallway, I didn’t have any fear of missing out and I felt better staying in than I usually would have in the past. Miami has a very large party culture and it is easy to get wrapped up in it. It is fun in the beginning when you don’t know this city but it does become old very fast. Waking up on Sunday morning was very interesting because people were outside walking their dogs at 9 am in their Halloween costumes because they were just getting back from partying the night before. I did my five-step skincare routine and slept like a baby for the past 72 hours and I was not jealous of anyone else’s Halloween experience at all.

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Harry Styles Played Medicine And I Don’t Think I’ll Be Sick Again.

Hannah Corbett Reporting From New York, NY

I went to the last night of Harry Styles' tour at Madison Square Garden on Halloween, and it was scary good. Harryween ‘Fancy Dress Party’ was a two-night special concert on October 30th and 31st. Fans were decked out in every costume you could imagine; store-bought, homemade, but all marvelous. My sister and I get to our section 119 seats that we paid for in 2020, pre-pandemic, and it feels surreal. Waiting amongst others, we watch the general admission fans gather to the front of the stage, some laying on the ground, most taking pictures. Then the lights go out, and Golden starts playing. Anticipating Harry to wear the greatest costume of all time, it sounded like the crowd was pleased. A white clown costume with a crescent moon starts grooving onto the center of the stage with a guitar strapped around his shoulders. The concert goes on and I’m out of breath, that’s when we all start chanting, we want one thing…Medicine. For the past couple of weeks, Tik Tok and Twitter have been talking about medicine. A song Harry has never released and hasn’t played since 2018. The sultry, rock song was being demanded, and he heard us against his will; repeating over and over “ME-DI-CINE”. After a short break, the lights come back on, deep red, and he’s putting on an act. The drums come in, and he grins. We know it’s medicine. Madison Square Garden shook underneath my feet from the combination of the girls and gays screaming, and Harry. Without a second to breathe, he transitions from ‘medicine’ into ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears. I’m pretty sure that I blacked out because the next thing I knew, Kiwi was ending and the lights were coming on. Making sure I had my green boa and merchandise, my sister and I walked out of the concert hall. I say as we walk out “I am never going to complain again, he played Medicine”. And then I woke up today with a sore throat, so I watched the video I took of Medicine.

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Nightmare on FDR Boat Drive

By Kemi Watson Reporting From New York City, NY

Originally, I was supposed to wear a basic traditional costume with friends, but things didn’t go as planned. My costume from Fashion Nova was delayed and I was left to resort to being a creepy observer. On the night of October 29th, 2021, I delved in a costume hunt adventure on a boat called the Avalon and danced my way around the very eccentric costumes. Of course, people wore quirky costumes, but the ones that stood out the most were the original costume that was formulated differently from pop culture. I ran into one passenger that created a battle angel costume utilizing a lime green vest paired with military-style cargo pants and angel wings. Cory’s costume was unique because the majority of it was not store-bought compared to others at the event. Being non-traditional is always a plus because a person incorporates more time and effort into their costume. I enjoyed the beauty and glamour of the costumes and the effort out into costumes post-pandemic lockdown. It was exciting and meaningful to see cultures and people from various backgrounds intermingle over Halloween costumes and yachting. I would suggest anyone who celebrates Halloween in the future experience attending one on a boat.