The festivities are creeping and campus is crawling as students prepare to celebrate Halloween.
Dorms, Greek houses, and campus groups have been hallowing the occasion with dorm decorating, candy purchasing, and themed events leading up to Halloween night.
Kindle Barber, senior and president of the Chi Omega sorority, said that the girls have been preparing for the spooky season with house festivities.
“As a house, we have been celebrating the upcoming holiday by having a pumpkin carving sisterhood event and watching classic Halloween movies, like “Hocus Pocus,” to get us ready for the season.”
Most dorms, including Olds, McIntyre, Galloway, Simpson, Benzing, Whitley, and Niedfeldt Residences are opening their doors and hallways to trick-or-treaters. From 6 to 8 p.m., children of professors and other trick-or-treaters from the community will be frightening the dorms and tricking candy out of poor college students.
Julie Finke, junior and head resident assistant of Whitley Residence, said that their dorm is partaking in this campus-wide event as well.
“One of the nice things is that Judith gave all of the girls pumpkins, so our hallways look really festive,” Finke said. “And we’re planning on doing a little decorating in the lobby, nothing freaky and ghosty. The girls are all going to get candy and dress up as something fun.”
Galloway and Olds Residences have already celebrated the season with a “fall fiesta,” which included bobbing for apples, carving pumpkins, and painting gourds.
Junior Shelly Peters, head RA of Olds Residence, said that she is excited to welcome the Hillsdale community into the dorm and to have the opportunity of giving rather than receiving, remembering the joys of trick-or-treating as a child.
“In Olds, with a theme of Candy Land this year, how could we not celebrate this sweet holiday?” she said. “What a beautiful way to practice hospitality on the eve before All Saints Day in the jolly land of Candy Land!”
The Catholic Society is celebrating All Hallow’s Eve in a traditional style. They are hosting an All Saint’s Day party on Friday at 8 p.m. at 25 Vine St.
Simpson Residence is hosting a Halloween party which is open to all of campus on Nov. 2 from 9 p.m. to midnight in the Simpson basement.
Claiming that they will have the best disc jockeyss in town, DJ Hashtag and DJ Can’t$topWon’t$top, who are none other than Simpson RA junior Andy Reuss and head RA senior Garret Holt. Reuss said they will also have food, costumes, dancing and possibly a photo opportunity.
“We are really just looking forward to giving a people an option to have fun,” Reuss said. “We are students. We like students. Students are fun. And fun things are fun. So why not combine all these things?”
Delta Sigma Phi is raising hell as the fraternity plans to host their annual Haunted House, which will take place in Curtis Dining Hall from 8-11 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Joe Snyder, senior and president of the fraternity, said that the event always has a great turnout and great feedback.
“It’s always one of the biggest events of the year,” Snyder said. “All proceeds go to the American Red Cross.”
Snyder also said that there are scary as well as funny rooms in the Haunted House.
“There’s 6 foot 8 inch, 300 lb guys in fairy costumes,” he said.
In addition to all the fall festivities that take place on campus, Hillsdale Business Association held it’s annual Awesome Autumn festival downtown on Oct. 24.
Participating in Awesome Autumn were 31 downtown business who offered samples and treats to wandering pedestrians.
“[Awesome Autumn] really gets everyone into the town and allows them to see everything that is going on, and it’s really fun,” local resident Cindy VanCamp said.
Along with the refreshments offered by businesses, there was also a ghost walk in which people dressed as an important figure from Hillsdale’s history and wandered the streets sharing their story.
“It’s fun talking to people,” participation senior Katherine Denton said. “And the kids get a big kick out of our costumes.”
Vintage Chic business owner Cyrstal Gimenez said that the function brings a lot of new people into the downtown area and allows people to walk around and discover what downtown Hillsdale has to offer.
“It’s just a really cool function,” Gimenez said.
