It’s that time of the year again. Pumpkins line the porches of New Haven, cobwebs grace the railings of stairs, and a delicious feeling of dread—much like when you enter Bass Library—begins gripping campus. Although professors evoke horror with midterms, our favorite type of scary can be found far from the classroom. Halloween is approaching fast, and with that comes a wide range of outfits. Here are my predictions for this year’s Yale Halloween costumes.
Let’s start with the obvious: some costumes repeat as consistently as seasons—think vampires, witches, cats, and the cast of Mean Girls. As soon as Hallo-week approaches, our peers will swap their sweatpants and Yale hoodies for animal ears, Dracula teeth, zombie masks and lots of black mesh. If that’s too much work, all it takes is waking up, throwing on a pair of fuzzy ears, and if anyone asks, gracefully explaining, “I’m a mouse, duh.”
During my research (i.e. Pinterest deep-dive), I realized there’s one kind of costume that college students still seem to gravitate towards: the group costume.
Yale first-years will need to assert that they have, in fact, found friends in the seven weeks they’ve been on campus. What better way to communicate that than with a perfectly coordinated group costume? I predict we’ll see video game characters—Mario Kart is the strongest contender here—and movie squads: DC, Marvel, Disney, DC (again). But those classics will face serious competition in the form of their ancient counterparts. So many people have told me they want to be Greek gods that I’m sure there’ll be enough to populate Olympus. Twice. Also, will the DS kids show up in togas? One can only speculate.
If a group effort is too hard to coordinate, Yalies will likely opt for the “couples costume.” Think angels and devils, celebrity couples, Superman and Wonder Woman. Note here that “couples” is a strong word. Do couples even exist at Yale? Perhaps “situationships” is the preferred term. Personally, I think someone should dress up as a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich. That should work perfectly for a group of three and would be a beautiful ode to an after-Woads meal at GHeav. Halloween is all about creativity, and food costumes are all the rage right now anyway. How cute would an M&M group costume be? Or a Nerds one? So much double meaning there, too.
In conversation with other students, there’s been one unanimous answer as to what this year’s most popular costumes will look like, and that answer is: Squid Game. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon monopolize the costume scene once again. La Casa de Papel, Stranger Things, Normal People, Lucifer—there’s just so much great content to work with.
Finally, let’s talk humor. I want to see humor. Puns and figures of speech and things that’ll make me laugh. Maybe someone will dress up as a B+; I’m sure it’ll terrorize Yalies more than the spookiest costume ever could.
But in all seriousness: it’s Halloween, Yale. Time to slip into the world of the magical, scary, gruesome, and fantastical. I’m excited to see what you’ll come up with. And if you’re feeling especially inspired, don a Harvard sweatshirt and walk around campus. I’m sure you’ll get an award for “most terrifying” costume.
Happy Halloween!
It’s that time of the year again. Pumpkins line the porches of New Haven, cobwebs grace the railings of stairs, and a delicious feeling of dread—much like when you enter Bass Library—begins gripping campus. Although professors evoke horror with midterms, our favorite type of scary can be found far from the classroom. Halloween is approaching fast, and with that comes a wide range of outfits. Here are my predictions for this year’s Yale Halloween costumes.
Let’s start with the obvious: some costumes repeat as consistently as seasons—think vampires, witches, cats, and the cast of Mean Girls. As soon as Hallo-week approaches, our peers will swap their sweatpants and Yale hoodies for animal ears, Dracula teeth, zombie masks and lots of black mesh. If that’s too much work, all it takes is waking up, throwing on a pair of fuzzy ears, and if anyone asks, gracefully explaining, “I’m a mouse, duh.”
During my research (i.e. Pinterest deep-dive), I realized there’s one kind of costume that college students still seem to gravitate towards: the group costume.
Yale first-years will need to assert that they have, in fact, found friends in the seven weeks they’ve been on campus. What better way to communicate that than with a perfectly coordinated group costume? I predict we’ll see video game characters—Mario Kart is the strongest contender here—and movie squads: DC, Marvel, Disney, DC (again). But those classics will face serious competition in the form of their ancient counterparts. So many people have told me they want to be Greek gods that I’m sure there’ll be enough to populate Olympus. Twice. Also, will the DS kids show up in togas? One can only speculate.
If a group effort is too hard to coordinate, Yalies will likely opt for the “couples costume.” Think angels and devils, celebrity couples, Superman and Wonder Woman. Note here that “couples” is a strong word. Do couples even exist at Yale? Perhaps “situationships” is the preferred term. Personally, I think someone should dress up as a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich. That should work perfectly for a group of three and would be a beautiful ode to an after-Woads meal at GHeav. Halloween is all about creativity, and food costumes are all the rage right now anyway. How cute would an M&M group costume be? Or a Nerds one? So much double meaning there, too.
In conversation with other students, there’s been one unanimous answer as to what this year’s most popular costumes will look like, and that answer is: Squid Game. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon monopolize the costume scene once again. La Casa de Papel, Stranger Things, Normal People, Lucifer—there’s just so much great content to work with.
Finally, let’s talk humor. I want to see humor. Puns and figures of speech and things that’ll make me laugh. Maybe someone will dress up as a B+; I’m sure it’ll terrorize Yalies more than the spookiest costume ever could.
But in all seriousness: it’s Halloween, Yale. Time to slip into the world of the magical, scary, gruesome, and fantastical. I’m excited to see what you’ll come up with. And if you’re feeling especially inspired, don a Harvard sweatshirt and walk around campus. I’m sure you’ll get an award for “most terrifying” costume.
Happy Halloween!
