Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays growing up. The idea of dressing up as my favorite wall crawler and prancing around for sweets occupied my tiny mind every day leading up to Halloween. Now, I realize the sense of community it gives people. Neighbors sit outside and hand out candy to tiny avengers and witches, and they have no obligation to give away candy, they do it because of either social pressure, or the good out of their hearts(I prefer the latter). But now, we can't exactly walk around getting candy from strangers. COVID-19 has prohibited us from participating in this holiday, and has affected all age groups.

For kids, they're not going to be able to walk around their neighborhoods and collect sweets anymore. COVID can be easily be transferred by items touched by someone infected by the virus, and that means candy too. Halloween parties will also be affected. Gatherings of more than ten people are not recommended, and most Halloween parties had tons of people crammed into one house. This relates to us college students directly.

For us college students, Halloween is a time for massive costume parties where you dress up with cheap homemade costumes and party the night away. But unfortunately, having huge parties isn't exactly responsible. In fact it's outright dangerous and selfish. The spread of COVID is no joke, especially since we are seeing the rise of a second wave. Parties are being shut down on college campuses, and everyone's stressed about a second wave. So what can we do in replacement to having house parties?

One thing that I'm planning to do on Halloween is grill and chill. I'm going over to my friends house, with some other of my closest friends, and we're watching horror movies and grilling burgers all night. As long as it's with a small group of people, go hang out at your house and watch horror movies while stuffing your face full of candy. As boring as this sounds, this is the responsible thing to do with the second wave rising. Don't be that person to host a huge house party just because you're young and healthy. Do your part in slowing the spread of COVID-19. But also, try to have fun on Halloween!