Written By: Paige Bryant, Lily Robertson, & Emily Ziegler

When you think of Halloween you think of fall, candy and fun, but as we grow older the meanings and activities behind halloween change. As a child everyone is always in the halloween spirit so early focusing on getting the perfect and most elaborate group costumes. As a kid you can’t wait to show off your costume at school and go trick or treating with all their friends. Talking to middle schoolers at Ensign Intermediate we found multiple groups of people, guys and girls, planning to be characters from the recent horror movie “It.” We found it ironic that twelve and thirteen year olds were being characters from an R rated movie. We also found a greater variety of people in groups of more than ten. When talking to younger students, we found that many of them are still trick or treating and know the prime places to trick or treat. The best places being Castaways, Kings Road, and the Port Streets. However, we found that many high schoolers stopped trick or treating in about 6th grade. When we talked with highschool students we found very few groups of two or more still trick or treating. We also did not come to a census on the most dominant costume since not all high schoolers even dress up. We found people being anything from frat guys, and aliens to wonder woman and dorothy.

After talking with many high schoolers they all seemed that say that they plan on spending their halloween with friends or at halloween parties. The idea of halloween seems to change with age. The holiday is much more of a thrill and exciting night and a beloved child holiday, but by high school the craze of dressing up and trying to collect the most candy possible out of all of your friends begins to die out. As a child you spend all day preparing your costume and getting together with all of your friends to trick or treat. Now most costumes seem to just be some clothes from your closet thrown together at last minute to make a costume. The costumes people come up with are much different than those you choose as child at the halloween store. But even as you age and the idea of halloween alters it still always keeps the general idea of hanging out with friends and having a good time whether that be collecting candy or hanging out at a party.