I have not consulted Webster's dictionary or urban dictionary yet, but I invented a new word to describe the atmosphere on campus today. Today is not just Wednesday, October 31 or Halloween, but what I call a Falliday (fall-ih-day), a fall-holiday. This will be the last of our three days in a row of fabulous fall weather not reaching the 80s so it is definitely purposeful to celebrate.
Let me start off my saying Happy Halloween to everyone reading this! With all of the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and Blogger posts, it is hard to detract from this incredibly fun falliday. What is there not to love? We carve pumpkins, a traditional fall fruit, and decorate our homes with orange and black decorations. Kids and adults alike dress up in costumes, which in the middle ages, was to scare the spirits away on All Hallow's Eve. Scary movies, tasty treats, interesting music, and heaps of chocolate candy and candy corn enhance the experience, which only happens once a year and is remembered by everyone.
For the last five years I used to volunteer at a non-profit Halloween party in Jacksonville through Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, where I volunteered for three years in addition to serving as member and president of a teen advisory board for the program. It saddened me not to be able to participate this year, with it being on the UMiami homecoming game day, but I have heard that it was wonderful once again. At my old school, the elementary and middle school students used to dress up for class. We would leave first period early and watch the elementary students parade around the upper school campus, and I usually got lucky with teachers who had children attending the lower school, so we always got great seats. I remember the vast majority of all of my costumes from those years, ranging from a jack-o-lantern to a figure skater to Little Red Riding Hood in eighth grade.
What makes this falliday even more special at UMiami this year is a few things. One, the weather is completely perfect: breezy but bearable and sunny without a single cloud in the sky. Two, it is a farmers' market day, and I bought a bag of red grapes (you know my favorite) and two yellow grapefruits. I have never tried a grapefruit before, despite having a tree in my backyard growing up, but combine the red and yellow together for a pretty orange, which just happens to be the color of the day. Three, Hecht is having a special Halloween celebration of its own with
The Shining playing in the faculty master's apartment with Italian food and lots of candy, the pumpkin display in the lobby and judging tonight at 7:30, and the special decorations that I got to put up with the fabulous committee. I am wearing my favorite black Lululemon pants today with an orange shirt and green scarf, and the overlap basically shows my love of Halloween and UMiami.
Whatever you are doing tonight, make it a memory and take lots of pictures. I love looking back on my old costumes, traditions, and time trick-or-treating with family and friends. Eat some candy corn, drink hot apple cider, or whatever you can to make this an especially special falliday.
You won't regret it.
XOXO
For the last five years I used to volunteer at a non-profit Halloween party in Jacksonville through Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, where I volunteered for three years in addition to serving as member and president of a teen advisory board for the program. It saddened me not to be able to participate this year, with it being on the UMiami homecoming game day, but I have heard that it was wonderful once again. At my old school, the elementary and middle school students used to dress up for class. We would leave first period early and watch the elementary students parade around the upper school campus, and I usually got lucky with teachers who had children attending the lower school, so we always got great seats. I remember the vast majority of all of my costumes from those years, ranging from a jack-o-lantern to a figure skater to Little Red Riding Hood in eighth grade.
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