Halloween and Spooky Spirit Week 2025

by Lauren Fraser, Alisha Akim and Alyssa Prashad

Spooky Spirit Week

South High School celebrated the last week of October with a Spooky Spirit Week. The event was devised by the Class of 2026 to commemorate Halloween and the incoming fall season. Throughout the week, students and faculty alike haunted the halls of South in their scary attire. Each day was dedicated to a specific theme.

Spooky Movie Monday:

On Monday, students dressed up as characters from their favorite scary movies. The day paid tribute to a number of classics from the horror genre, ranging from The Nightmare Before Christmas to the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. Costumes included Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas and animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Sinister Twin Tuesday:

Tuesday gave students the opportunity to celebrate the Halloween spirit with their friends. With careful planning, students and their friends went to school as well-known duos and groups across the horror genre, including vampires and cowboys.

Cozy Wednesday:

Cozy Wednesday was quite popular with the South community ever since the establishment of the no-pajamas dress code. The day allowed students to relax and roam the hallways in their comfortable Halloween attire. Outfits varied from Halloween-themed onesies to pajamas reflecting fall colors.

Fall Fest Thursday:

Thursday was dedicated to the blossoming autumn season. Faculty and students traversed the halls of South, rocking colors like black, brown, red, orange, and yellow. They donned attire including scarves, jackets, and sweaters to signify the changing colors and climate during the fall season.

Trick or Treat Friday:

Friday marked the arrival of Halloween at South. In celebration of the Halloween spirit, scary jams were played between class periods throughout the day, including notable classics like Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Students dazzled the halls in their unique Halloween costumes, reflecting a multitude of genres including horror, action, and more. Notable costumes included superheroes like Superman, fictional serial killers like Michael Myers from Halloween, and pop culture icons like Hatsune Miku.Aside from students, faculty participated on this spooky day as well. Some teachers gave out candy to their students, while others planned fun Halloween-themed learning activities for their classes. Each teacher wore spooky attire that matched their respective departments. Examples included the Science Department as edible items, the Math Department as Kraft Mac & Cheese, and the English Department as goths.

Overall, the South community had a spooktacular time closing out October and made memories to remember.

Halloween Costumes

How South Students Spend Their Halloween

Halloween is one day of the year where you can be anything you want. The stressors of life fade away for one day, one night, and you can live blissfully without burdens. There are billions of people in the world celebrating this holiday, but closer to home, to explore what Halloween looks like through one of our South students, I sat down with Aya Aqabli, an 11th-grade student at Valley Stream South. Her Halloween plans reflect the spirit and blissful nature of Halloween.

Before getting to the haunted night itself, I asked Aya what she dressed up as in school for Spooky Spirit Week. For the first day, which was Spooky Movie Monday, she recreated the main character from her favorite Halloween movie Coraline, with a blue wig and yellow rain jacket. On Sinister Twin Tuesday, Aya matched with her close friend Mariya Imran as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat in the Hat. Cozy Wednesday, which was Aya’s favorite day of the week, she wore her favorite Halloween pajamas. During Thursday’s Fall Feast, Aya wore a cozy fall sweater following the traditional color scheme of reds, browns, and oranges.To finish off the school week on Friday, Aya wore her first costume of the day and was a clown. She DIY’d the whole costume by doing makeup based on the Joker and glued together a party hat using cardboard, markers, construction paper, and hot glue.

Once the school day ended, Halloween night was a complete 360. I asked Aya how she dressed up on Halloween and what her plans were. Aya told me she wanted to take her 2-year-old sister trick-or-treating for the first time, so they dressed up matching as scary black cats. Aya opened up about how special this moment was for her, seeing her sister so happy going door to door saying “trick or treat” to each house and laughing with joy at the amount of candy she got. This Halloween became a special and monumental moment for Aya and her sister, and she now plans to spend more special moments with her and take her trick-or-treating every year before college.

Of course, Halloween isn’t complete without a candy haul, so I asked her how much candy she and her sister got. She told me nearly five full Halloween pumpkin buckets! That load will last them into next year. Aya’s sister is young and couldn’t be out late trick-or-treating, so I wondered how she spent the rest of her night. She said she spent the rest of the night handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, then watching a scary movie with popcorn and hot chocolate.

Interview Questions:

• What did you dress up as in school for Spirit Week?

• What did you do on Halloween night?

• Who did you go trick-or-treating with?

• How much candy did you get?

• Did you pass out candy to trick-or-treaters?

• How many houses were you able to trick-or-treat at?