By Katherine Breaux and Madison Kellogg

!!WARNING!!: Individuals that suffer from Samhainophobia (the fear of Halloween) the following text might be unsuitable.

October is the spookiest season of the year, and it all leads up to Halloween at the end of the month. Americans usually go all out for Halloween by decorating their houses in spooky decorations, carving pumpkins, baking festive treats, and going trick-or-treating. St. Petersburg College Tarpon Springs Campus has definitely set the bar high for the Halloween spirit this year. The St. Petersburg College Tarpon Campus Library crew has worked hard to create a spooky spirit in the library, these include; a costume contest, frightening decorations, a stranger things themed scavenger hunt, a Halloween movie night, spooky crafts, and ghost tours. In addition to all these, a survey about the students’ favorite candy was conducted. 

Halloween would not be Halloween without costumes. The St. Petersburg College library held a costume contest that allowed students to dress up and compete for the best dressed. This contest saw everything from a real-life Spiderman to a character look-a-like from the Disney movie UP, and even childhood nostalgia with someone dressed up as Kim Possible. In addition to all of this, the SPC Tarpon Campus library crew dressed up as the cast from Stranger Things to compliment the library’s decorations. Besides the costume contest, the school library also thrilled students with spooky decorations from the popular show Stranger Things. When asked why they choose this theme, the staff simply said, “That it is what has been trending, and the students are able to personally relate to the decorations.” The St. Petersburg College library crew out did themselves this year, and while the next Halloween is being eagerly awaited for, some spooky surveys were conducted. 

On Halloween, various questions related to the holiday were asked of the students. The students were first asked how they planned on spending their spooky night. One girl said she planned on attending a garage party which is, “A party where all the teenagers hang outside and play games, while the parents talk and chill inside.” Most people responded to this question by saying that they simply planned on staying in and watching scary movies with family or friends. Due to the overwhelming response of people deciding to watch movies this year, a poll was taken to gather students favorite Halloween movies. Some common answers were Friday the 13th, Ghostbusters, and The Purge. Since candy is such a big deal at Halloween, a candy preference survey was made. Students who were at the library could choose between Skittles or M&M’s. The two candies remained neck and neck through most of the afternoon, but M&M’s pulled through with a 60% win over the skittles. 

Overall, the decorations and activities that the library team put together put everyone in the Halloween spirit. St. Petersburg College Students had a blast dressing up for the contest and enjoyed the stranger things decorations in the library throughout the month of October. This event helped to inspire a festive spirit in the students even through the heat of the semester. These types of things are what help to refresh students and remind them that college is more than just classes and homework.