High school students have varying Halloween traditions but many have roots in the same childhood fascination with the holiday. Students’ early traditions are created by their parents but later on, traditions develop into something they can enjoy with their friends.
Junior Alicia Jurado celebrates Día de los Muertos, the LatinX tradition of Day of the Dead, with her family. They’ve made a traditional Ecuadorian bread for this holiday since before she was born, Jurado said.
“I have a lot of fun making it and then sharing it with my friends,” Jurado said. “They always get really excited when I bring it, so it’s like a tradition with all of us now.”
Even with longstanding family traditions, many students said they are discouraged from trick-or-treating, a staple of many students’ childhoods.
According to an article written by Rachel Paula Abrahamson for Today, a law was passed in a city in New Brunswick, Canada that prohibits kids 16 and older from ringing doorbells. In Chesapeake, Virginia, officials decided that 14 should be the cutoff.
Inglemoor students follow the same trend. One sophomore said that they would be embarrassed if they went trick-or-treating.
Even with the change of feelings toward old Halloween traditions, students are still finding ways to have fun on the holiday.
“I like to dress up and go to a get-together that one of my friends throws every year,” junior Olivia Metz said. “We never judge each other on Halloween, so you can be whoever or whatever you want to be without fear.”
Other students’ perceptions of you are something many high school students worry about, but Halloween gives people a chance to be who they are.
“Traditions may change,” Jurado said, “but the fun never will.”
