Halloween comes from the ancient Celtic festival of the Samhain, where the festivals were seen as a way to ward off any evil spirits. Now, Halloween is a celebration of spooky things throughout the world, even in Gibson County. On Oct. 31, students haunted the halls of Gibson Southern then the school held its annual Halloween costume competition.
The contest, run by Student Council members junior Jenna Schleter and freshman Kayla Russler, changed a little. In the past, teachers in different hallways judged the costumes and decided the winner of their sections of the competition. This year they made a decision to make the judging a little easier on everyone. The only judges were the office staff.
“In the past, math judged best solo,” Student Council President Claire Wisnoski said. “So, this year we decided to put it in one place at one time to make it easy for everybody who wanted to participate.”
This process proved to be much more efficient this year with only three main judges assessing costumes during the third period at 10:40 a.m. by the auditorium. There were also no wandering students who missed their turns because they could not figure out which hallway to go to.
During the designated third period time, everyone who wanted to compete was called down to the auditorium where they filled out a paper with their names and the category under which they wanted to be judged. The categories this year were best original costume, best solo costume, best duo costume, best group costume and a new category: best makeup/special effect. This addition was for those people who did not want to fully dress up.
The judges called the groups out one by one and judged them. Additionally, they took pictures so they could later look back and recall what students were wearing. Afterwards, everyone was sent back to their classes where they waited until the end of the day for the results of the competition.
“Everybody likes Halloween,” Wisnoski said. “Even if some people don’t celebrate because of certain reasons, it’s still fun to dress up and try to win a prize and wear pajamas to school.”
Some students just do not like to participate though and some are not even aware of the spirit days themself.
Although there were plenty of people in a variety of different costumes, the competition was smaller this year. Junior Jonnie Dixon said that maybe if some people just participated, some spirit days would be a little more fun. Dixon feels the best way to pass information around is to spread it by word of mouth.
“I’ll go all out [on my outfits] and no one else is dressed up,” Dixon said. “Everyone should get involved and have a fun time.”
As the day came to a close, the judges came to a final decision.
The winners this year were sophomore Asher Ping for Best Original Costume as a plague doctor; sophomore Peyton Miller for Best Solo Costume as Napoleon Dynamite; freshmen Naomi Hutchinson and Ashley Carr for Best Duo as a magician and rabbit; freshmen Erica Narruhn, Emma Schleter, Greenlee Powers, Evelyn Anderson and Glinde Huante for Best Group as Alice in Wonderland and sophomore Symphony Path for Best Makeup/Special Effect as a Zombie.
