In college, any holiday is a reason to celebrate -- especially Halloween.
When it falls on a Monday, it means an entire weekend for spooky festivities.
Beginning tonight, Penn State students will be tricking and treating -- here's all students need to make "The Five Nights of Halloween" a devilishly good time.
On the first night of Halloween, the lion gave to me: 1 hobo costume
When considering Halloween traditions of the present, some students remember Halloween traditions of the past.
Third-generation Penn State student Tristan Helms (freshman-engineering) said he remembers a story about his grandfather, who participated in a hobo costume contest when he was a Penn State student.
"It was his freshman year, back in 1925," Helms said. "It was called Poor Day and he dressed up like a bunch of leaves."
Helms said he will dress as Harry Potter this year. Instead of completely buying his costume from a store, though, he said he'd mix and match between store bought and homemade items using his own creative ingenuity.
On the second night of Halloween, the lion gave to me: The Rag and Bone
Original and creative costumes can also be found at The Rag and Bone, 220 S. Allent St..
"We got all different ideas when we came," Laura Sandy (freshman-elementary education) said.
Sandy said she went to the store with a costume idea in mind, but after looking around with her friends, she took a different direction.
"We totally changed our minds. There's so much stuff here," Sandy said.
The Rag and Bone is a mix of a granny's attic, a Goodwill store and the costume wardrobe from Napoleon Dynamite, offering anything from a retro leisure suits to cowboy boots.
"Popular things for women are '80s prom dresses, flapper dresses and go-go outfits," owner Shelley BankerPecsek said. "For guys, '70s stuff, gangster suits and also most popular, I would say, is going as a woman."
On the third night of Halloween the lion gave to me: a week of festivities
Many groups are combining h, including the cheerleading club and Acacia fraternity, 234 Locust Lane, are taking Halloween to the max this week by incorporating Homecoming preparation with Halloween fun.
"We have the festivities to get ready for homecoming, to make the float," Lauren Bumbaugh (sophomore-division of undergraduate studies) said. "We dress up in something different each night." Bumbaugh said she would definitely be dressing as a cop one night.
"I've got a baton," she said.
On the fourth night of Halloween the lion gave to me: pumpkins
Anyone craving pumpkin this Halloween can stop by Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte, which can be consumed either chilled or as a warm beverage.
"It's awesome," Michele Rodgers (sophomore-English) said. "I get it all the time."
Many loyal customers see the pumpkin spice latte as a herald of fall.
"I see it and I'm like 'Yeah! It's fall!' I get so excited," Rodgers said.
Also this fall, Anheuser-Busch is featuring Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale, which contains a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, clove and pumpkin.
For more pumpkin fun, purchase a pumpkin-carving kit for less than $7 at Wal-Mart, with plenty of patterns and saws.
On the fifth night of Halloween the lion gave to me: a masquerade parade
The College of Arts and Architecture is sponsoring a masquerade parade and ball from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday outside the Arts Building.
The event is free and open to the public.
"It's going to be all these artsy majors coming together to participate in this great show," Stephanie Brick (freshman-architecture) said. "It's going to be awesome, 250 of us dressing up as famous people, animals and crazy things."
Brick said there would also be fictitious characters with zany props and huge paper-mache celebrity heads.
"It's awesome to see your friends make fools of themselves, because this is a class assignment," Brick said.
