Hauntingly Heartwarming Memories

What Lynn Alumni and Professors Enjoy About Halloween

By Nick Blanchette, Staff Writer

With Halloween just around the corner, former Lynn University graduate student Ede Holiday and one of Lynn’s professors in the College of Communication and Design, Mark Sparacio, explained what they love the most about the holiday and how they celebrated in the past.

Like any special occasion, Halloween is a time when both children and adults create meaningful memories. Holiday enjoyed the big Halloween parties that her parents used to throw when she lived in St. Louis. One year, she went to the largest neighborhood in the St. Louis suburbs to go trick-or-treating, an event that was locally referred to as “Chevy Chase,” where people did their decorate, provide candy for trick-or-treaters and host music-themed events.

“There was one house that had four people on stringed instruments and a woman in red who would sing Halloween songs after every 10 or so minutes,” said Holiday. “She would let out a movie-worthy horror scream, and you could hear it almost on the other side of the neighborhood.”

Holiday has been in costume every Halloween since she was young, with 2020 being the only exception due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fourth grade, that involved her dressing up as her own iteration of the goddess Athena, joking that she looked like a Greek woman from the Hellenistic period.

More recently, while living in an apartment with one of her friends, she and her roommate made an elaborate crime scene with their chalk outlines on the ground and fake blood on their shirts.

“I like the fact that you can dress up as whatever you want and no one cares,” said Holiday.

Of course, college students, recently graduated or not, are not the only ones who thoroughly enjoy the spooky season.

Professor Sparacio loves Halloween candy and seeing the different types of costumes people put together. Each year, his wife even dresses up their puppies for the occasion and they watch various spooky movies.

“We watch a lot of horror movies,” said Sparacio. “My favorite movies are ‘Alien,’ ‘The Shining’ and ‘The Excorcist.’ You know, those are some of the ones I have to see for Halloween.”

With so much to enjoy, there is no doubt that many Americans this year will create new Halloween memories that they will hold on to.