With more than 180 million Americans celebrating Halloween every year and new developments with COVID occurring, many families changed how they celebrated Halloween this year. Halloween has been celebrated for almost 2000 years and many traditional Halloween activities like trick-or-treating or costumes parties were not safe options this year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a statement about safety precautions for Halloween.
“Many traditional Halloween activities can be high-risk for spreading viruses,” the CDC website said. “Avoid these higher-risk activities to help prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19: Participating in traditional trick-or-treating where treats are handed to children who go door to door.”
A majority of students and staff stayed home for this Halloween.
“I ended up celebrating Halloween this year by staying home with my family,” sophomore Jeardo Reyes said. “My original plan was to go trick or treating with my friends but couldn’t due to Corona.”
While many students stayed home with their families, others spent time with friends or went to parties.
“I went to a Halloween party in LA,” sophomore Johnny Hernandez said.
Along with students, teachers had also rearranged their usual plans for Halloween.
“This year I had my siblings over and watched Hocus Pocus while eating junk food,” physics teacher Rosa Herrera said. Many students and staff who planned on going trick-or-treating were unable to.
“Usually we go trick-or-treating, this year we couldn’t do that,” Herrera said.
San Marin took part in some Halloween fun as well. San Marin’s Leadership class prepared events for Halloween night. On Friday Oct. 30, there was a Senior pick up event from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Students received goody bags and if they wore a costume, they were entered in a raffle to win a $50 gift card. A community trick-or-treat event was held on Oct. 31 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
“Halloween this year was different, that’s for sure,” Reyes said. Researchers found only 26% of households this year were likely to participate in Halloween activities this year.
Other holidays besides Halloween are expected to change due to the current guidelines and restrictions.
“Holidays are going to continue to change, as we saw for Halloween this year, holidays are not going to be the same as they were before,” Reyes said.
A senior dressed up as a ghost at the senior pick-up event on Oct. 30th.
A senior dressed up as a skeleton. Many seniors could not celebrate their usual Halloween plans, but were able to stop by the event.
