Halloween is just around the corner and students at Long Beach State are gearing up for the spooky festivities.
Many students don’t have exact plans set out for Halloween night but plan to celebrate in the days leading up to All Hallows’ Eve.
A popular activity this year has been Universal Studios’ annual Halloween Horror Nights, which started on Sept. 9 and is running through Sunday, Oct. 31. The event was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions, which made it a highly anticipated affair for this fall season.
First-year student Andrea Manreza said she attended the event on Saturday, Oct. 23 with her old dance teammates. They wanted to attend a week ahead of the holiday in order to make room for other potential plans on Halloween night.
A few students said that they’ll be staying home for the night, either to spend time with their families or to binge-watch their favorite Halloween movies.
One student who opted for an at-home celebration is third-year student Amber Martin, an exchange student from the U.K.
This year, Martin said she is looking forward to enjoying some stop motion animated films such as “Coraline” and “Paranorman”.
Martin said that if she were back home, she would go want to go out and get dressed up for the holiday, go to an escape room and then to a bar with some friends.
“Due to being in an entirely new country it’s kind of nerve-wracking to head out and celebrate,” Martin said.
Also planning many different Halloween events is Aquila Jacquette, president of the Black Business Student Association, a senator for the College of Business and director for the Hispanic Students Business Association.
All of these organizations will be hosting events during the week of the holiday, and she will be at all of them.
The first event Jacquette will be attending is the BBSA Bowling Night on Tuesday, Oct. 26, on the first floor of the University Student Union. Other Black-led organizations will be in attendance such as the CSULB Black Student Union and the National Society of Black Engineers.
“The event is a social for students to come and celebrate an early Halloween, there will also be candy,” Jacquette said. “But we are also working on promotion as we are getting rooted again on campus.”
On Thursday, Oct. 28, she will be attending the Halloween Party hosted by ASI also at the USU. Followed by the HSBA Amigo Mixer on Friday, Oct. 29 where there will be a pumpkin carving event.
Jacquette will end her Halloween festivities by driving down to Rancho Cucamonga to take her nieces trick-or-treating since they couldn’t go last year.