Halloween is a celtic holiday which was originally celebrated to ward off spirits. Now, it’s a day turned into costumes and fun, where people give out candy to those who are wearing costumes, and just have fun. We took a poll around the school to figure out what our Generals are doing for Halloween, and what kinds of candy are popular around the school, so let’s look at the results and find out!
Out of 30 pollees, our Generals frequented chocolate-related items. This included Twix and 100 Grand Bars, with 3 responses respectively, Kitkats, with 4 responses, and Reese’s, with 4 responses. Post World War II saw an era of significant shifts in Halloween tradition, including the switch in the treats they would give out for Halloween. Companies like Hershey’s began making their way to the top of the market during Halloween for their convenient packaging and small size, yet rich taste.
On the contrary, 20% of the participants in our poll showed a strong dislike in the candy Dots. Dots are a gummy candy that are packaged in a small box. They’re gummy, hard, and many describe them to have an unappealing flavor. The people who chose Dots as their least favorite Halloween candy had strong feelings towards the candy. Some of the remarks made were that the candy is “nasty,” and that they are “gummy in the worst way.”
When it comes to our Generals’ favorite Halloween song, 33% voted for “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and The Crypt Kickers, released in 1962. It was released as a single in August, and was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 by October 20th to 27th of that year. Many people consider “Monster Mash” to be nostalgic, because of the reappearance of the song every year since it’s release. Every year around Halloween the song makes a strong comeback, and the band continues to reach high numbers on the board despite no longer releasing music. They’ve reached 52nd on Global 200, 25th on Ireland OCC, and 30th on the US Billboard Hot 100. Other popular songs among the Generals were “Thriller” by Michael Jackson and “This is Halloween” by Marilyn Manson, included in the movie “Nightmare Before Christmas.”
“Nightmare Before Christmas” was a movie the Generals really enjoyed, taking up 17% of the votes. It was released in 1993 as a stop-motion animation film and was produced by Denise Di Novi and Tim Burton. It won 7 of its 17 nominations at the Academy Awards and also won the Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement. The Generals who said that the movie was their favorite made similar comments about why. Some said that the movie was nostalgic for them, and a pleasure to watch every year during Halloween. Others said that the movie was very creative, and that there aren’t many movies around like it. A close second for the Generals’ were the “Scream” movies, with 13% of Generals claiming it as their favorite.
The Generals had a wide range of costume ideas for this Halloween, a few costumes were more on the scary side, like zombies, clowns, witches, and vampires. Other Generals, though, had more lighthearted costumes. Several examples would be a fairy, Beast Boy, Spider-Man, Starfire, and the Hulk. A portion of our Generals had quite creative costumes that are less popular. This Halloween, Sophia Rainwater was Pete the Cat, Iris Lee was The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Mr. Garrett Peace dressed up as a log. Very fun and interesting costumes, to say the least.
A few of our Generals didn’t have much excitement about Halloween, but the majority were thrilled for the holiday. Some people carved pumpkins, hung out with friends(47%), or went Trick-or-Treating(13%). A couple of Generals even said that Halloween is the best holiday. If you got Dots while out Trick-or-Treating, I’m sorry, but alas, we hope our Generals had a safe and fun-filled night. Happy Halloween!
