Disclaimer: Articles written by Young Writers do not face as much editorial scrutiny as those written by high school students.
As it gets closer to Halloween, many are debating whether it’s safe enough to go out and continue this tradition. Since the appearance of COVID-19 and the rising global death toll, it comes as little surprise that Halloween 2020 will be far from normal.
In a survey of 19 students, 57.9% celebrated Halloween on an annual basis and 15.8% celebrated Halloween sometimes. Many usually celebrated Halloween by trick-or-treating locally with friends, going to parties and wearing costumes. But for this year, 52.6% had decided to not partake in normal Halloween traditions, 42.1% were undecided and 5.3% were planning to celebrate Halloween like every year.
This year, many plan to watch movies, do homework and eat candy. Some had stated the obvious reason: the coronavirus, which is preventing people from celebrating this year. A lot of the respondents felt disappointed that Halloween was going to be unusually different this year. At the moment, some of the respondents would not risk going out and celebrating Halloween, and many would be able to tolerate this change.
“I eat candy, and I get candy. My brother and I always see who gets the most candy, and then we eat the ones that we want. The candy we don’t want are given to kids next year. I usually get candy from around my neighborhood,” Takoma Park Middle School seventh-grader Ashley Zhang said.
Zhang does not plan to participate in Halloween this year because risking catching the virus is not worth getting candy to her. She thinks that Halloween is not the best custom as all she does is compare the amount of candy with her brother, and she points that Christmas was better as she “could get gifts anyways.”
Ben Katz, a seventh-grader from Westland Middle School, responded that he sometimes went out for Halloween. Katz explained he does not normally go too hardcore on Halloween–he calls it “Casual Halloween”–where he goes to get candy, dresses up and goes around the neighborhood with some friends, but never really attends parties and haunted houses.
“I guess I had other things I wanted to do. I also sometimes give out candy and don’t go out, but most of the time I go out,” Katz said. “I’m probably going to watch the TV or [spend time] reading. I might have some homework, and I may put out a bowl of candy. But, I’m probably not going to go trick-or-treating.”
Katz reflected that he was hardly impacted by the virus affecting Halloween since he was not a big Halloweener. Although he is disappointed that he will not be able to see his friends, he hopes for a fun, more laid-back Halloween.
This year’s Halloween will be very unusual, as many have decided to protect themselves and prevent the spreading of the coronavirus.
Article by Qwyen Le of Cabin John Middle School
Photo by Cathy Bowman of Winston Churchill High School