Holidays often involve some form of theft. The Grinch stole Christmas, and Halloween stole Princeton's colors. I don't care what the storybooks say — all I know is that Princeton's official colors have been orange and black since 1890, long before Halloween became a commercialized holiday. This isn't a "chicken or egg" situation. Halloween stole Princeton's colors.
So, it comes as no surprise that Princeton is a little bit annoyed with Halloween. In fact, Princeton's so angry that it takes a break from class during Halloween purely out of spite. Our administration likes to tell us that the true, original purpose of Fall Break was so that students could devote one week to political involvement. Friends, this is what is called a myth. At Columbia, students have antiwar rallies. At Brown, students protest environmental destruction. At Princeton, we have a standing tradition of protesting Halloween.
With gothic architecture, secret tunnels and gargoyles perched atop its buildings, Princeton's campus was designed for Halloween. We didn't spend our childhoods in dentists' offices getting fillings only to give up on Halloween a few years later! We have devised our own scheme. We shall celebrate Halloween when it is convenient for us — on the last night before we go home for Fall Break. At Princeton, holidays don't define us — we define them.
I do find it somewhat disappointing that trick-or-treating is not a part of the Princeton Halloween scene. Who doesn't enjoy having a pillowcase full of candy that satisfies an entire month's worth of midnight cravings? Wouldn't it be a cool tradition if freshmen could go to upperclass dorms and receive some fun-size Snickers bars? Or, better yet, maybe undergraduates could make the marathon trek over to the Grad College for a few treats ... on second thought, I think my mommy once told me that I shouldn't take any candy from the sketchy grad students ...
Without a doubt, the best part of Halloween is the costume. A shocking number of females use Halloween as an excuse to wear as little as humanly possible while still covering up certain body parts. I'm not complaining, I'm just observing. An equally shocking number of males each year are compelled to wear tight and skimpy women's clothing while still covering up certain body parts. I am complaining. As far as my own costumes go, I was especially proud of my sophomore year costume: Nantucket red pants, a yellow collar-popped polo and a scarf around my neck (a Cottage member's). But nothing compares to a former roommate of mine who purchased a full-body inflatable penis costume and literally strutted his stuff around campus all evening.
Each year, I'm pleasantly surprised by the stellar room parties that my friends manage to throw on Halloween. We've learned many important things during our time at Princeton, but none is more important than the recipe to orange flavored jungle juice. At a Princeton Halloween room party, one should expect to find exquisite decoration, a festive atmosphere and many, many, many frightening Beasts. Funny how they always seem to travel in packs of 30, isn't it?
You've probably just experienced a whirlwind of a week. You've worked your tail off to prepare for back-to-back-to-back midterms. You've been running on little to no sleep for days, and, well, you're still pretty darn tired. But hopefully, you managed to go out last night and celebrate Halloween on a night when no one else on this planet was doing anything nearly as fun. You have all of next week to sleep. At Princeton, we sure work hard ... but boy, oh boy, do we know how to celebrate Halloween. After all, Halloween did steal our freaking colors. Neel Gehani is an ORFE major from Summit, N.J. He can be reached at ngehani@princeton.edu.
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