Reminiscing about their memorable childhood experiences, dressing up in Halloween costumes and gathering candy are collective memories BYU–Hawaii students share.
Candy earned from a night of trick-or-treating has always been one of the best parts of Halloween, according to Gwen Gottschall, a senior from Utah majoring in intercultural peacebuilding. “The best part of the night was pooling all our candy together and trading it with my cousins. As kids, you don’t really have money. It was so much fun to use our candy like money and trade them around.”
Gottschall said trick-or-treating made Halloween one of her favorite nights of the year.
“It was the one night my parents let me go out on my own and be wild and ring people's doorbells and get free candy. I also loved dressing up and it was nice to have people say, ‘Wow, look at your costume. Here's some free candy.’”
Kenedi Cooper, a junior from Utah majoring in cultural anthropology, said candy and Halloween go together hand-in-hand, “Halloween just isn’t the same without candy. That’s the whole point, to go trick-or-treating and eat candy all night with your friends.”
When Cooper was seven years old, she said she lived in a community with a large population of senior citizens. Cooper said her first Halloween in the new neighborhood surprised her. “I went out trick-or-treating, and the first door I knocked on they didn’t have any candy.”
Cooper said because the community was mostly senior citizens, they did not have any candy for trick or treaters. “They had no candy, so I was bummed out. I got a lot of oranges and fruits. Some of them felt bad, so they gave me money to go buy candy.
“I guess it has a happy ending because my parents took us out and bought us candy in the end.”
Trick-or-treating and Halloween go together perfectly for John Taylor, a sophomore from Texas majoring in business finance. Taylor said his family would make homemade Halloween costumes to go trick-or-treating. Taylor said, “When I was little, I was a turtle with a painted cardboard shell. I had to turn around at the door so people would know what I was.”
Taylor said trick-or-treating was about getting as much candy as possible. He said he used to hide most of the candy. “I’d drop most of it off at home. I figured if I had a full bag people would give me less candy when I trick or treated.”
Trick-or-treating, however, is not without its mishaps, said Marisa Firth, a junior from Utah majoring in TESOL. Firth said, “When I was a kid, I loved trick-or-treating and dressing up. It was my favorite part of Halloween.”
Firth said her love of the holiday lead to one of her memorable Halloween experiences. “I was a little kid and I loved unicorns, so I dressed up as one for Halloween. It was a big unicorn costume.”
Firth said St. George, Utah is cold during the fall, often with patches of ice on the road and sidewalks. “As I walked up the stairs of the front porch to the house we were knocking, I slipped on a patch of ice and landed flat on my back. I felt like a turtle on its shell with its legs up in the air trying to get right side up again.
“That’s the fun part of it all though, making memories when you’re trick-or-treating, and eating all that candy with your friends.”