What age is too old to go Trick-or-Treating? According to some Bishop’s students, never. But while some people are busy planning out the best route to maximize their candy profits, others are deciding what time to visit Balboa Park’s Haunted Trail, and others still are making their costumes for the school contest. And when Halloween is over, it’s never too early to start thinking about Thanksgiving… and Bishop’s students are excited to participate in all that fall has to offer.
“My family’s definitely a fall family,” explained senior Nirvana Shiwmangal. “I watch Gilmore Girls — shoutout to [Spanish teacher] Ms. Uhland for letting me sit in her room like a hobbit and watch Gilmore Girls — and my family love pumpkins, so we grow pumpkins (we have a ginormous pumpkin in our yard that’s freshly grown and hasn’t been cut off the stem yet) and tinier gourds as well.”
Nirvana noted how her family has three categories of pumpkins: “pre-pumpkins for decoration,” “Halloween pumpkins for carving,” and “pie pumpkins for pies and seeds.” In total, she estimates that she has six or seven big pumpkins, not including Halloween carving pumpkins, two tiny gourds, and ten or twelve from Trader Joe’s — but as she uses all of them and then composts, none of them go to waste. Lilian Franqui (‘25) also planned on carving pumpkins to make a “wiener dog with three pumpkins; the head on one pumpkin, body for the middle, and tail/rear for the 3rd pumpkin.”
Lilian’s main Halloween activities consist of trick-or-treating in Bird Rock (“I’ll def be looking out for Smarties, Twix and gummy clusters this year”) and going to Balboa Park’s Haunted Trail, as well as decorating her house. Similarly, Seffi Morrison (‘27) has a tradition of painting pumpkins, going trick-or-treating, and then watching scary movies with her friends.
Houses aren’t the only things being decorated this time of year. Sofia Hayden (‘25) is very familiar with making her own costumes; notably, an outfit with mechanical wings that took her 20 hours (and lots of YouTube videos) to make, and won her the middle school costume contest. Though she “won’t be able to this year because [she’s] focusing on college apps and schoolwork,” a sentiment that seems very common amongst seniors, she still has time to “love the changing weather and how it leads up to Christmas.” And while she won’t be making her own costumes this year, she still loves “designing and making stuff.”
As much as fall can spur creativity and adventures, sometimes it’s nice to just curl up on the couch and watch a TV show. Seffi started watching Gilmore Girls when her friend recommended it to her three years ago, and has been rewatching it during the fall ever since. “There’s something very autumnal about the location of the show (Stars Hollow) and the New England style that comes along with it. There are constantly leaves, trees, coffee, and a cozy vibe with the outfits which makes me associate GG with fall,” she explained.
But Seffi doesn’t just want to be cozy during the fall; she also wants to be a little scared. “I don’t like being scared in general but I do enjoy getting a little scared during the Halloween season,” she said. That’s why she started going to the Balboa Park Haunted Trail in seventh grade, and hasn’t stopped since. “It gets me excited for Halloween and it’s okay to be scared when you are with your friends!”
The School put on Halloween festivities, including a costume contest, and school clubs also participated in the fun. “In food science we did a fall-themed meeting where we made pumpkin muffins,” said Nirvana, who runs the Food Science Club along with Ben Brown (‘25), “and we also watched Gilmore Girls.” This comes as no surprise as Nirvana’s favorite part of the fall is the “baking part of it”; she appreciates fall flavors, buying seasonal coffee flavors and making waffles with pumpkin pie spice. Seffi agreed that “trying the new drinks from the fall Starbucks menu (the pumpkin cream chai is my favorite)” is one of her favorite fall pastimes as well.
With Halloween over and Thanksgiving soon to be here, there are many more fall activities to participate in. Whether it’s drinking a pumpkin spice latte or making an entire feast, growing your own pumpkins or buying a gourd at the store, there is something for everyone.
