After a few years of Halloween being interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems that the spooky holiday may be back to normal.

In 2020, the U.S. went into a lockdown period, and for around a year, people would have to quarantine in their houses. Barely ever getting to go out and socialize with friends or get groceries like normal. Recently in 2022, COVID-19 has been mostly dealt with, and with that comes the return of a proper Halloween. But does Halloween truly feel the same as before?

Halloween means cooler temperatures, multicolored leaves and pumpkins, which many people will go out and buy to either carve or paint on. Junior Aidan Cox being one of those people, as he went to an annual pumpkin painting event hosted by the choir department.

“Pumpkins are something that I have always associated with Halloween and October,” Cox said. “My family has had a Halloween tradition of watching ‘It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown’ and that film since I was a little kid, has shaped how I view Halloween.”

Cox admitted that this year’s Halloween felt a little different. But even though he just gave out candy and watched the horror movie “Midsommar” with some friends, he felt that the Halloween spirit resonated heavily for him.

“This year’s Halloween did feel different than past Halloweens, because for the past two years I’ve spent Halloween entirely inside because of COVID,” Cox said. “It was so much fun, and this Halloween felt a lot more like a real Halloween than the past few have.”

Another well known activity during the season is going to haunted houses or scary attractions, where people get frightened by horror actors in frightening costumes. Senior Ben McDanald had this experience, but instead of getting scared by actors, he was an actor in the theater department’s annual haunted house attraction named ‘Prison Break.’

“I was the electrocuted prisoner in the execution chamber,” McDanald said. “We had to creepily greet the audience when they entered, scream and tense our bodies to be electrocuted, and then leap from the chair toward the audience.”

Although the outcome was very successful, it wasn’t as easy as it looked for anyone before the Friday and Saturday night performances, according to McDanald.

“It was a little scary because everything felt so chaotic and disorganized the days leading up to haunted house,” McDanald said. “But after some changes between Thursday and Friday, it turned out to be amazing.”

There are many activities and traditions to do during the weeks leading up to Oct. 31, however there is only one that can occur the night of Halloween, and that is trick-or-treating. Senior Mikail Sadic and his group of friends decided that this year would be full of trick-or-treating and more.

“We started it off by running around and trick or treating a little, and then ate some pizza,” Sadic said. “Afterwards we kind of drove around, said hi to some people, and took some drippy photos in the streetlights.”

Sadic had a different opinion about how Halloween felt this year, claiming that it felt different from the past.

“Ever since Covid hit, I feel that some of the Halloween magic withered away,” Sadic said. “There was just this different feeling throughout middle school and early high school.”

A lot of people can agree that Halloween is more fun to celebrate with friends, which sophomore Ava Smith said she experienced with her own friend group.

“This Halloween was my first Halloween with my new friend group,” Smith said. “I stayed out till one, and it was so epic because I was able to spend time with my friends without worrying about what time I got home. Halloween this year was nice because I still went trick-or-treating, however it doesn’t feel as magical as when I was a kid.”