Halloween in The Time of COVID
On Halloween, you can dress up as anything you like and no one will ask questions. You can wear your own costume or dress up with a group of friends. It’s the one night each year when you can eat massive amounts of candy and nobody will care, or scare and prank your family and friends with spooky tricks for a laugh. You can hang out with friends, watch movies, or go to a party.
But with the sudden spread of Covid-19 throughout the U.S, Halloween is going to look a little different this year. Kids won't be able to go door-to-door saying “Trick or Treat!” excited for candy. They won’t be able to rejoice when they receive a king size candy bar or get a little disappointed when they only receive an apple. With most parties and events canceled and neighborhoods closed off, kids and teenagers won’t be able to celebrate how they used to, so what are people supposed to do on Halloween night?
Staying at home and watching movies seems like the safest option. But no one wants to do that. The preferred activity would be to have a small gathering with friends. But many parents want to keep their kids safe by giving them a limit to the number of friends they invite, forcing them to make difficult decisions. Another good idea would be to have a neighborhood party (socially distanced with masks of course!). Also, In the spirit of Halloween, families can attend a drive-in-movie theater to see a scary flick. Although these options may not be the ideal way to spend Halloween, they remain the safest options under these circumstances.
Being teens in 2020, most students experience our lives through social media. We have an instinct to post when we’re with friends or going about life in general. But with the Coronavirus, it's hard to decide if you should post on social media to promote or discourage certain Halloween-related activities such as parties, having friends over, and sharing costume ideas. This choice is complicated for us all, and we are in the same boat together.
With all the precautions in place across the country, there is no surprise that the CDC is advising against normal trick-or-treating. But the organization has provided alternative options. Alternatives for trick or treating like wearing a mask, and staying distanced to trick or treat were listed. Costume alternatives could have people incorporating a mask to their costumes. Some changes that definitely don’t follow CDC guidelines are wearing a costume mask instead of your usual one, wearing a mask if you are under the age of 2 or have breathing problems, and holding an indoor gathering or activity. Another option that the CDC presented in a New York Times article is setting out individually wrapped bags of candy on your doorstep for kids to grab.
Another big part of Halloween is putting up decorations. Luckily, that tradition is one of the few that the coronavirus has not affected. Families are still putting spiders and cobwebs on their trees and gates, tombstones in their grass, and fog machines in their driveways. People may even decorate their homes more than usual due to the circumstances. But it's hard to shift our lives for this new and dangerous situation.
Upon researching what Halloween 2020 might look like this year, I came upon an article that I found to be extremely relatable. It notes that we have started to lose track of how long it's been since the outbreak. We’re all longing for something to go back to normal. Hoping that Halloween was that event, we continue to count down the days until Halloween, trying to salvage what once was. The piece raises the question of how we can cancel a holiday that most young kids idolize and get so excited for each year, when they barely understand what the Coronavirus is. Some quotes in the article show parent’s point of view and how disappointed they are for their children that they may not be able to do normal Halloween things. There are multiple points of view on this topic. Some parents are not letting their children Trick-or-Treat at all, while others view it as safe. With no clear view of how the holiday will look this year, the internet now seems like a scattered Pinterest board of ideas for parents and others trying to find different ways to entertain themselves and their children this Halloween.
By Peyton Louie