You are going to HFI on a sunny day in November that seems just like usual. As you walk into your school building, instead of seeing your mundane classrooms and peers, the scene coming into your eyes are cobwebs hanging in the stairwells, skeletons lurking in dark corners, and something red dropping on the floor. As for your teachers and peers, they are all dressed up in bizarre costumes and outfits astonishing to the eye. Well, that is HFI’s Halloween for you! In addition to the school staff strolling around in weird getups and your friends cosplaying different characters, the real fun starts at night when clubs like C.L.A.P. start holding thrilling and scary activities for students to get the best out of Halloween.

Daytime Fun

One of the greatest forms of amusement for HFIers on Halloween is sitting in a classroom and eagerly anticipating what creative getup their teacher would walk in wearing. When their teacher finally makes their dramatic entrance, the whole classroom will immediately explode into hoots and screams of delight. This year, the costumes of the teachers seemed to be even more creative and attractive, such as Susan’s costume as a cool swordswoman, which she claims to be Zixia Fairy; Yoee’s cosplay of the anime AttackonTitan; Joe’s getup as Nick the fox from the Disney production Zootopia and much more exotic outfits. However, the students’ costumes hardly paled in comparison to those of the teachers. You could witness students strutting down the hall in colorful and gothic attires. We interviewed a student who cosplayed as Johnny Silverhand from the game Cyberpunk 2077 and went to every classroom claiming that he was going to “burn this city to ash.” He commented that this year was quite different from last year because “instead of getting to wear outfits for the whole day, previously students were allowed to wear their costumes only at night.” Moreover, he remarked that being caught up in the Halloween spirit, the diversity of costumes this year is even more abundant, compared with former years.

Nighttime Spook

As day passed into night, the atmosphere started to get really in tune with the festival. The school clubs started up their events such as the performances of Acapella and Fusion as well as the selling of D.I.Y. products such as Halloween candies made by C.L.A.P. In the front hall of HFI’s building, catchy music rang out from speakers while dancers of the school club Fusion dressed up in cute gothic costumes and danced to the beat. A student Miles Xu who watched the dances with fascination commented that it was a really good way to start the evening off because it uplifted the entire atmosphere and got everyone in the mood for participating in cool activities.

One of the most attractive events was the disco hall held by the Dielit Club where students waved their hands in the air and rocked with the enthralling popular music blaring over the speakers. This activity was quite a hit and most students enjoyed the experience, saying that the DJ’s taste of music was getting increasingly better over the years. Meanwhile, students clutched at each other in fright and expectation while stepping into the haunted house hosted by the student council, expecting NPCs to leap out and chase them around the interior of the room. More students waited in line outside the haunted house while listening to the occasional shrieks echoing from the inside. Some student workers at these booths reflected that even though it was a little difficult to work in their costumes, it was still worthwhile to witness the delighted expressions on students’ faces. Everyone was in high spirits and there were some really long queues for more vogue activities.

Conclusion

The costumes and activities of Halloween mostly focused on the creativity and diversity of the students rather than on the scariness of the events. When interviewed, year eleven student Eric Mo noted that these Halloween events provided a chance for students to indicate their inner personality through their various outfits and express their innovative ideas. It revealed students’ genuine passion towards life and gave students a break from their busy and mundane student life. Joseph, the academic principal of HFI, talked to us about his feelings towards this year’s Halloween event: “This year’s Halloween event is really well organized and the student council did a really great job of putting it together, making sure that people do the correct jobs. We can see students getting away from studying all the time and having great fun. The students and the teachers participated really well and their costumes were diverse, showing great individual characteristics. To really stir up excitement next year, there may be a costume contest for students to participate in and a way for students to vote for the scariest one or the best-dressed one.”  Ending on that note, we hope all students obtain consolation through this intriguing event and look forward to an even more exciting and spookier Halloween next year!

Writer: Sophie Li

Content Proposer: Natalie Yan

Editor: Michael Wang