Smarties to Shots

At age 10, most of us gathered around in living rooms late Halloween night, admiring our piles of Sour Patch Kids, Snickers and Pixie Stix. \nMany of us are still getting together on All Hallow's Eve in college, but this time, it's about hoarding red plastic cups and shot glasses, and in many cases, it's being done while some of us are scantily clad in revealing costumes. Whatever the setting, getting your trick-or-treat bag filled to the brim is a concern of the past for IU students.\n"There's a game some people play at Halloween parties, where they throw candy corn into a bowl, and every time they get one into the bowl, they have to take a shot," says sophomore Manasee Atre.\nIt's no secret that Halloween is celebrated differently in the world of college. At a younger age, through the eyes of innocent children, Halloween was a magical time of the year. The day-long affair usually began with dressing up for one night, sometimes showing off our costumes at parades and contests in elementary school, and finally staying up late, roaming the neighborhood streets with friends and collecting as much free candy as possible.\n"When I was a kid, I usually went trick or treating, and then I went over to my friends' houses to play video games," says sophomore Sibo Lin. "But the most important thing was the free candy. I mean, what else? Is there anything else about Halloween?"\nFor many college students, there's a lot more.\nThings have changed 180 degrees since our early years. Usual pursuits for college students, such as indulging in illegal substances of a wide variety, flirting and partying in a parents-free environment are commonplace for students' weekend activities at schools across the country -- and Halloween is no exception.\n"I know a lot of people who basically go party on Halloween. Usually the parties are a little different because they're Halloween-themed, but there's still alcohol there, and people go just to get drunk," Lin says.\nWith the clear contrast, we have to ask: why is Halloween such a special night, even with the dichotomy of innocent childhood wonders and hedonistic adult pleasures? Why did we like it so much as kids, and why do some like it even more as college students?\n"Children's peer cultures are characterized by kids' desires to do things together and to gain control over their lives. Halloween fits these two patterns well," says Professor William Corsaro.\nCorsaro, a member of the IU sociology department faculty, specializes in the sociology of childhood, ethnography and sociology of education, and explains there's a lot more to the holiday for little kids than just the free sweets.\n"Halloween is a special time for children for a number of interrelated reasons. First, it's a holiday in which they feel a great deal of control over the adults who usually control them. They get to go to homes of adults and just by saying 'trick or treat,' are given candy, and also often fussed over and praised by adults," he says.\nHowever, not all kids look forward to the costumes and candy. Corsaro says as kids start to get a little older, they seem to anticipate the "tricks" more than they anticipate the "treats."\n"In the past, the trick part of trick or treat' was taken more seriously and children were likely to play tricks like putting soap on windows, smashing pumpkins and so forth on adults who were not always nice to them," Corsaro says. "These acts, which were often done in groups, gave the kids a feeling of shared control. Such tricks still happen today but to a much lesser extent."\nSo have kids matured since the days when we hit the streets on Halloween? It's a possibility. Regardless of any heightened maturity in recent years, college students certainly seem to engage in more "mature" endeavors as they become older. \nInstead of being transformed into Cinderella or a Ninja Turtle, people who attend college Halloween parties might dress as something a little more eye-catching. And more often than not, these costumes are accompanied with a can of beer in hand.\nYoung people obviously have other things on their minds than just M&Ms. This might explain the drastic change in costume selection. Some parents might be less than enamored to find out what their children plan to do this Halloween.\nWhat about after college? Many adults continue to dress up and have parties, even if they're less crazy than the ones they probably threw in their college days. Grown-ups continue to honor the Halloween tradition of dressing up and socializing at office parties, gatherings with friends and even putting on a costume to take their own children trick or treating.\n"I think college students and many other adults as well continue to dress up and have Halloween parties for several reasons," Corsaro says. "First, it sort of lets you be spontaneous and feel like a kid again and lets you escape from the demands of the adult world."\nMany adults also use the holiday as a means of overcoming inhibitions and as an outlet for their creativity.\n"Dressing up enables individuals to embellish their personal style in lots of ways by creating innovative costumes," Corsaro says. "Many adults may choose a costume that lets them be another type of person for a day. Someone shy or timid may dress up like an evil villain or a sexy witch or temptress in revealing outfits, men may dress up like women and vice versa. Given that it's Halloween and done in the spirit of the holiday, one can let go, act a bit crazy and try on a different persona, but in the safety of knowing it is just for one night."\nNot all students zero in on the partying aspect of the holiday, either. Many students look forward to parties where the masquerading is highlighted.\n"I still like Halloween because you get to dress up," Atre says. "There are a lot of parties with a lot of really cool themes. Everyone dresses up as people from medieval times, or their favorite cartoon characters. It can be a lot of fun."\nIn that sense and in a lot of other ways, Halloween is a positive event that has the potential to be constructive and fun for those who participate. While it's a day of the year all can enjoy, Corsaro says he believes it's still the kids who find the most in the nights of ghouls and ghosts.\n"It is a nice holiday in this sense because it centers on children and goes beyond the family to include the wider community," he says.\nStill, it creates quite a juxtaposition with the "sweetness" (both in the literal and figurative sense) of childhood and the excessive alcohol and other hijinks associated with college partying. People still find allure in a holiday in which candy corn, a treat that can be perceived to be a harmless snack symbolizing youthful innocence, is used in drinking games.\nBut of course, there's always the classic Halloween staple to look forward to.\n"There's free candy," Atre says. "That's a plus"