As the end of October approaches, young children are not the only ones worrying about what to be for Halloween. College students are also given the task of thinking of the best Halloween costumes of the year.
In college, however, Halloween is not just simply the night of Oct. 31. The holiday tends to stretch across the entire Halloween weekend and is given the name “Halloweekend.” There is then an additional pressure on students to think of at least two or three different costumes, one for Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.
“Every aspect of Halloween is fun,” sophomore Mary Burke said. This includes, “trying to pick what you are going to be, getting the costumes, putting them together, then finally being able to wear them out with your friends,” she said.
According to Burke, it is not difficult for her to come up with costume ideas for the weekend, as more often than not, it is a group effort with her friends.
“It’s not difficult to think of so many costumes since usually it’s with a group of people,” Burke said. “We all talk about what we want to possibly be, then decide collectively on what we are going to do.”
For others, it is harder to find inspiration for costumes.
“I’m not very good at Halloween,” Clare Walls said. “I get my ideas off of people I know who are good at thinking of ideas.”
So what makes the perfect college costume?
Because Halloween in college mostly centers around parties and going out, it is popular for college students to turn themselves into the “naughty” version of everyday things and people. Everything from naughty nerds, naughty angels and naughty devils and naughty Disney princesses can be spotted around campus during Halloweekend.
“I think a lot of college students have very similar costume ideas,” sophomore Robert Durante said. “It’d be cool if people started switching it up for the most part because everyone kind of copies each other.”
For college couples, it is common for them to coordinate their costumes together, transforming themselves into well-known duos. Popular couple costumes include police officer and criminal, doctor and patient or vampire and victim. Other couples choose to recreate pop culture couples.
“I think it is adorable,” Burke said in regards to couple costumes. “My boyfriend and I plan on being Sandy and Danny from Grease.”
But are college students too old to dress up for Halloween? They seem to think not.
“I think it’s acceptable for college students to dress up for Halloween,” Durante said. “As a whole, college students like to go out and party, so dressing up for Halloween is another event to have fun with your friends.”
Walls, agreeing with Durante, plans on dressing up this year, but probably won’t once she graduates college. “I can’t imagine dressing up after college, but I wouldn’t look badly upon people who do,” she said.
While the debate over whether one is too old to dress up for Halloween goes on, it is truly up to one’s own opinion. Halloween will always remain a holiday of creativity and imagination, even for college students.