Fourth-year students Amelia Ay and Lisa Nguyen were eager to share their Halloween traditions.
“I usually do group costumes with my cousins,” Ay, a math education major, said. “Last year we did witches, and this year we are doing Care Bears.”
“My neighborhood has a lot of kids, so we hand out candy on Halloween and sometimes will even decorate our house,” Nguyen, a psychology major, said.
Jordan Waymire, a fourth-year creative writing major, celebrates the fall season close to her German roots, by making mashed potato candy with her family.
“We take mashed potatoes, powdered sugar and peanut butter, and we roll it up and cut it into swirls,” Waymire said.
Waymire has never met anyone else who makes this traditional candy, even though both of her parents participated in this tradition before they met.
For Gizzelle Del Rio, a first-year undeclared major, fall is an important time as it holds space for Day of the Dead.
“Our extended family all gathers together at my house as we put up the Ofrenda for our family members who have passed away,” Del Rio said. “We also buy treats and eat pozole and tamales.”
Audrey Yoshimura, a second-year pre-nursing major, usually takes her younger brother trick-or-treating on Halloween.
“My family is going to be doing ‘Lord of the Rings’ as a group costume this year,” Yoshimura said. “I am the shortest in the family, so they are going to be elves and I am going to be a hobbit.”
Yoshimura and her roommate, Andrea Alcantara, a second-year psychology major, will also be celebrating the fall season by carving pumpkins into cute fairy houses.
As the weather changes and students look forward to the upcoming holidays, fall is a time to get together with family and friends to make some memories.