Halloween During School

Many people had different opinions on how Harvard-Westlake (HW) celebrates Halloween. The school let us wear our costumes to school, but that is as far as the festivities on campus went.

“I really liked how Harvard-Westlake let people wear their costumes to school, but you know what would be cooler? Halloween themed activities. I’m [talking about] a costume contest and maybe a bowl with candy for people to take. The whole deal!” Amanda Allen ’23 said. Many students shared this opinion.

“I thought Halloween was great this year, although I do think that Harvard-Westlake (HW) could have done more to get kids in the halloween spirit,” Piper Vita ’25 said.

“I wish that we did more Halloween related activities because the Halloween spirit was really low and it was kind of sad,” Sophie Shabani ’24 said.

There were other students that had different thoughts on this topic. “I think that the Halloween celebration was fun and well organized at school,” Asher Meron ’25 said.

An idea that students had that kept resurfacing was that they wanted Harvard-Westlake to have no school the day after Halloween. Many of the responses to the Halloween survey said that they want there to be no school and no homework because, on the night of Halloween, students usually stay out late and, therefore, don’t have a lot of time to do homework and study for tests.

Even if Halloween at school didn’t have many activities, the students were filled with spirit in their fun and creative costumes. A huge percentage of the student body dressed up at school this year. With 194 responses to the Halloween survey, 76.8% of students said that they wore costumes to school.

Halloween Out of School

After school, students celebrated Halloween in many different ways. As one would predict, the most common way students celebrated Halloween was trick or treating! Twenty-four percent of students surveyed hung out with friends, while 12 percent went out and partied. Some other students also believed that Harvard-Westlake should also have Halloween activities the night of Halloween.

“Maybe on the night of Halloween, the school should host a Halloween party,” Olivia So ’25 said. That would be a super fun way for students to share a fun Halloween experience.

“They should let us have the day after Halloween free from school. I trick-or-treated late and it would have been nice to sleep in,” Joseph Koh ‘25 said. Additionally, if there is school on November 1st, students think that there should at least be no homework due.

“I don’t like how certain teachers gave us homework over Halloween. I feel that this should be a homework free day as to allow for more students to have fun,” Tyler Anderson ‘25 said.

Halloween Costume Trends

This year, a few costume trends were prevalent in costumes at Harvard-Westlake (HW). Many trios of girls at HW dressed as the power puff girls, wearing pink, blue, and green outfits. Tourist costumes were also popular, with many groups of students wearing tropical-themed shirts and hats. Many students also wore costumes that resembled clothing from a specific decade, some even dressed up as celebrities from different decades. Another popular costume theme was TV show and movie characters. Students dressed up as their favorite characters from cartoons such as Spongebob and Scooby-Doo, or movies like Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, and The Addams Family.

photos by: Lily Lee ’23, Claire Paul ’23, and Claire Conner ’23