October 30th, 2015

By Teresa Schatz, Randi Miick, Elizabeth Castillo

The colors are bright, the dead come alive, and there is a breeze in the air. Halloween is a time of the year to have fun and show others your creative and unique costumes; each costume is a part of that person and their personality.

Halloween originally was a holiday to ward off ghosts and unwanted spirits. Most aspects of the tradition are thought to have originated from the Celtics in the British Isles. The people living there celebrated the feast of Samhain, the New Year, which started on November 1st. The Celts lived 2,000 years ago in what is now known as Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France.

The first celebrations of the holiday occurred in New England and consisted of public events, neighbors sharing stories of the deceased, fortune telling, singing and dancing. However, the holiday was not celebrated in other parts of America until the second half of the 19th century when new immigrants (mostly Irish) flooded into the country. Americans then began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, thus became the term “treat-or-treat”.

In recent years, Americans alone spend an estimated $7.4 billion each year during the holiday on costumes, candy and decorations.

This year at Phoenix High School, our students went crazy. Today, Friday the 30th, we were able to dress up and show off our personalities. The costumes we saw were amazing and creative.

One of the Costumes we saw was a pair of fuzzy dice. These two friends decided to wear big, white fuzzy boxes with large black circles for the dots.

Another person was dressed as Michelangelo, the ninja turtle; to create this costume he was wearing a bright, green skin suit.

Finally, we saw a girl in a black dress with red roses and sugar skull makeup representing El Día de los Muertos. 

Now go and play this fun Halloween Bowling or Cute Pumpkin Head game while you get ready for trick-or-treating!

This weekend, try to avoid breaking mirrors and stepping on cracks in the road. You should also avoid black cats and spilling salt!