Halloween History

NCE IN A BLUE MOON

charley thomas staff writer

Halloween this year will be unique from the rest for one specific reason unrelated to the coronavirus — in true 2020 fashion, the holiday will host the rare solar event of a blue moon. To put this into perspective, there will only be 11 blue moons on Halloween throughout both the 20th and 21st centuries, the most recent one having been 19 years ago in 2001. In the last 19 years, a lot has changed. From movies to candy to costumes, everything has had its Halloween trends go in and out of style, and this article will help you to see just how much can happen between two particularly spooky blue moons.

MOVIES

2001 “Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge,” a childhood favorite for many, was released to theaters across the country on Oct. 12, 2001. The movie came as a sequel to the original “Halloweentown” released in 1998 that, despite having a budget of only $4 million, received generally positive reviews from kids and adults alike. It follows an adventure of Marnie Cromwell, a young and particularly talented witch, that must stop an evil warlock from sabotaging Halloween night. Kalabar, the warlock antagonist, has stolen Marnie’s grandmother’s all-powerful spellbook, and he plans to use it to turn humans into their costumes permanently at the stroke of midnight. The movie included many Halloween traditions like bobbing for apples, decorating with spider webs and cauldrons and dancing to songs such as “Monster Mash” and “Thriller” to help get its audience into the fall spirit. 2020 The star-studded movie “Hubie Halloween” premiered Oct. 7 on Netflix. Set in Salem, Massachusetts, perhaps the most eerie town in America, the film focuses on the devoted outcast of the town, Hubie (Adam Sandler), who is more often than not the victim of his community’s pranks and mockery. This Halloween, however, Salem finds itself in the midst of a murder investigation, and it’s up to Hubie to save his beloved town as well as it’s favorite holiday. The stunning cast of “Hubie Halloween” has been the reason for much of its publicity, sporting a seemingly endless list of accomplished actors like Maya Rudolph, Kevin James, China Anne McClain and Shaquille O’Neal. As Halloween restrictions continue to be set because of the coronavirus, a home-showing of “Hubie Halloween” with friends and family may emerge as a popular celebration of the ghostly holiday.

CANDY

2001 watch the twizzlers commercial here The candy for which everybody wanted to trade in 2001 was Twizzlers, the strawberry-flavored licorice strings. The Twizzlers sudden rise in popularity can be attributed to the company’s highly effective commercial that showed a grown man pretending to be a walrus while at a zoo with two Twizzlers in his mouth. An obviously ridiculous scene, the advertisement seems to have fit perfectly with the brand’s former slogan “play first, eat later.” 2020 The candy that was preferred by most Americans in 2019 and is expected to earn the title of most popular Halloween treat in 2020 is Reese’s Cups. The chocolate and peanut butter concoction was listed as the most beloved candy of a whopping 36% of Americans, beating out its closest competitor Snickers by 18%. With an abundance of spin-off products like Reese’s Pieces, Reese’s Fast Breaks and Reese’s Thins, it’s hard to find a candy basket today without the iconic brand.

COSTUMES

2001 In agreement with the magical nature of the holiday, the most popular Halloween costume in 2001 was either Harry Potter or Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling’s book and movie series also titled “Harry Potter.” Although the first book, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” came out in 1997, it wasn’t until Nov. 14, 2001 that its movie counterpart was released, therefore building up excitement and anticipation about the series and its characters once more. In addition to this, many chose to dress up as the people who they considered to be “true heroes” after the tragic terrorist attacks of 9/11, which led to an increase of police officers, fire fighters and other patriotic references like Captain America and Wonder Woman on Halloween night.

2020 This Halloween, people can expect to see many costumes that reflect the recent events of a pandemic and widespread quarantine. One example of this is Joe Exotic or Carol Baskin themed costumes that are expected to be all over the U.S. after so many of its citizens binge-watched the show “Tiger King” while in lockdown. In addition to this, people may get creative with their masks and style them into costumes such as participants in “The Purge,” a 2013 horror movie. Lastly, the social media trend of dressing up your pets is likely to result in many dogs and cats not-so-happily tricked into being pumpkins, devils, hotdogs and more for the festive night.

Tigers express favorite fall traditions

Coco Thomas, 9 “I look forward to Halloween. Every year my family goes to Walgreens and buys a bunch of full-size candy to give to the neighborhood.”

Max Rudman, 10 “I like Thanksgiving football. It’s an activity that brings us all closer together. I’m part of a really competitive family, so it provides a lot funny moments and dialogue. It’s a constant rivalry — I love it.” Simon Menees, 9 “I look forward to having my family over and hosting Thanksgiving every single fall because it improves the connection with our family.”

Miranda Miller, 11

“My club soccer team has State in the fall, so it’s a fun time of the year when we are practicing in order to prep for that.”

Gracie Terrell, 12 “I love going to the Louisburg

Cider Mill and getting cider donuts because they are so yummy. My family goes every year, and because we are all so busy, this is the one thing we have always make time for.”

Logan Clark, 12 “Since my birthday is Oct. 4 and my cousin’s on the 6th, my entire family always does something together. My favorite thing we’ve ever done was when my cousins and I drove go-karts in an empty parking lot on my birthday — it was the best.”

erika kolseth staff writer

I remember in elementary school, boys would think it was so funny to say that their favorite color was pink. I never understood what was so funny about the color pink.

Later I realized that the boys at school viewed pink as a girl color, and a girl color meant that it was feminine and wasn’t “strong” enough.

But colors like red and blue were boy colors — strong and masculine.

The color you like doesn’t determine how masculine or feminine you are.

The only reason why people associate color as feminine or masculine is because of a generalization that was created to put sexes into boxes.

Views on colors are similar to how gender is viewed in fashion.

We all grew up with the societal norms that men should wear suits, and women should wear dresses. It was decided in the 1940s that gender should be more prominent in fashion for the purpose of men and women “dressing to their parts.”

Obviously we’ve come a long way from the 1940s.

I scroll through my social media feed and see boys in skirts and dresses and girls in suits and button downs.

Fashion is becoming more androgynous. If someone feels like a dress best fits their body and their personality, there is no reason why they shouldn’t wear it.

Toxic masculinity plays a part in why men feel they need to dress “like a man,” with powerful suits, and a tight tie to assert dominance.

Men aren’t the only ones who struggle with toxicity in fashion — women also face a lot of trouble.

Recently, I’ve been buying mens shorts because they are longer and more comfortable.

When I was buying them in store, I went to the checkout, and they asked me if I wanted a gift receipt like they were for someone else. When I explained to the clerk that they were for me, she was confused at first then loved the idea of women wearing mens clothes.

Not only do women face an unrealistic standard of beauty and body types, but they are forced to wear uncomfortable clothes just to fit in.

Women are always being told what to wear, whether it’s a dress code or other men telling women what they can and can’t wear. Spoiler alert: womens clothes are restricting and uncomfortable. I’d rather wear long shorts and a T-shirt to school than jeans and a form-fitting shirt.

Women deserve to dress outside the norms because women deserve to be comfortable in what they wear and feel confident in it as well.

A man wearing make-up, a skirt or a crop top is still a man. His gender identification doesn’t change based on his clothing.

A woman not wearing make-up, with a short haircut or one who wears suits is still a woman. Her gender identification doesn’t change based on her clothing.

Masculinity and femininity aren’t genders — they are behaviors and roles rooted from stereotypical gendered experiences.

Why not step out of your comfort zone and wear something new and forward?

As a generation, we should accept new trends and push boundaries.

Gender-neutral clothing is the future of fashion.

It stands for equality and breaks all stereotypes that force people into boxes.

Androgyny: the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics into an ambiguous form Toxic masculinity: a cultural concept of manliness that glorifies strength and dominance, and that is harmful to mental health