The ghosts of Halloween past and present: How has Halloween at Warwick changed?

Halloween is a staple in any student calendar. Students up and down the country get dressed up in a variety of different outfits to celebrate the supposedly scariest night of the year, and at Warwick, this is no exception. It is near impossible to go through October on campus without at least one conversation centred around the festivities, and even the U1 is wishing people a “Happy Halloween!”. But just how has Halloween at Warwick been celebrated up until now?

Historically, Halloween originates from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, a pagan religious celebration to say goodbye to the end of summer and welcome the harvest and the beginning of winter. In celebration, people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts and evil spirits, hence we have adopted the dressing up tradition. Additionally, the word ‘Halloween’ is adapted from ‘Hallowed Eve’, or the evening before All Saints’ Day, which took place on 1 November.

Social media has been a critical tool in transforming Halloween into the holiday that we know today

Over time, the holiday has adapted and changed, and inevitably become more commercialised, to turn into the festivities that we know today. For example, trick-or-treating has become a much-loved tradition by children: in a poll by The Guardian, 68% of respondents said that they would buy sweets for trick-or-treaters and this number has been steadily increasing each year, emphasising how the celebration is beginning to be embraced by the wider population. In addition to this, pumpkin sales have risen every year, and it’s not unusual to have an Instagram feed full of people visiting their local pumpkin patch. Indeed, social media has been a critical tool in transforming Halloween into the holiday that we know today: seeing influencers at extravagant gatherings in creative costumes has sparked other young adults to do the same. Given the commercialisation of Halloween, it is no surprise that the celebrations have been adopted by university students, perhaps because they offer a chance to be creative and dress up, aside from Wednesday nights’ POP!, of course.

It is certainly not a new concept that Halloween is one of the biggest student nights of the year. 31 October has long seen students around campus dress up to trek to different celebrations. If anything, the celebrations have become more elaborate, and more prolonged, over time.

If anything, the celebrations have become more elaborate and more prolonged over time

Just as Halloween celebrations have changed over time, so has the Halloween festivity at Warwick. Delving into the archives, Halloween has been entrenched in the key dates section at the university since its opening. A Warwick RAG timetable from 1979 reveals that the Halloween Ball took place in Westwood on 30 October, while a Students’ Union Handbook from 1990 briefly mentions the “fancy dress Halloween night” sandwiched in between the “London Rag Raid in Week 2” and Children in Need under the Charities and Community Affairs pages.

In fact, Warwick’s Halloween celebrations can be traced back to the earliest publications of The Boar, when it was printed weekly! An edition of The Boar published in 1978 advertises the Halloween Ball taking place on Saturday 25 October in the Westwood Site. Promised to provide “excellent entertainment for all,” the Halloween Ball featured a performance from Liverpool band The Yachts. The pop band had just finished touring with singer-songwriter Elvis Costello and had a repertoire of, according to the article, “witty, snappy, and melodic” songs such as ‘Look Back in Love (Not Anger)’. The band may now have only a meagre 636 monthly listeners on Spotify, and even though they appear to have disbanded not long after their performance on Westwood Campus, it was certainly a selling point for the ball. However, the advertisement finishes with its biggest selling point of all: tickets only cost 80p.

Although The Yachts were unable to withstand the test of time, Warwick’s annual Halloween Ball certainly has. Advertisements for the Halloween Ball continue yearly through past editions of The Boar. An October 1987 paper details the Halloween Ball headlined by punk-rock band The Damned, a music group which experienced much more success than the pop band that had the headline spot nine years earlier! The addition of live music at Warwick’s Halloween Ball nowadays most definitely would not go amiss.

While the Halloween Ball may no longer take place on Westwood Campus, and unfortunately no longer costs 80p, it is still held each year in the relocation of the Copper Rooms. Though the SU promises that it will be a “night to remember,” when discussing the Halloween Ball with other Warwick students, it appears that the event has started to fly under the radar. “I didn’t even know that Warwick held a Halloween Ball!” says a second-year Warwick student. “I think the events off-campus are more appealing to students nowadays.”

While the preferred Halloween festivities at Warwick have shifted from on-campus to off-campus, the willingness to celebrate on 31 October certainly hasn’t

As the holiday has become increasingly commercialised, so has the attraction of leaving campus to celebrate elsewhere. Off-campus venues have much to offer, the most popular being Coventry’s nightclub Kasbah, which is hosting a Halloween-themed night on 31 October. Inevitably one of their busiest nights of the year, queues up and down the street are expected. For those who do not fancy partying, but still want to embrace the spooky spirit, there are ghost walks in both Coventry and Warwick.

Moreover, although the Halloween Ball may have lost its appeal over time, students’ willingness to dress up for Halloween has not wavered. Costumes are more inventive now than ever. It is impossible to open social media around ‘spooky season’ without coming across a costume idea. In addition, group costumes have become more popular, and it is not unusual to see flatmates or friends coordinated as different film or video game characters. However, elaborate costumes are certainly not a new tradition at Warwick. Previous editions of The Boar reveal that there used to be prizes for the “most inventive costume” at the Halloween Ball. Maybe the SU should bring back prizes for “the most inventive costumes” to reward people’s efforts…

At Warwick, Halloween-themed circles are popular during week 5, including with The Boar

Spooky costumes are not just restricted to this one night of the year. At Warwick, Halloween-themed circles are popular during week 5, including with The Boar!

Additionally, while off-campus events have become increasingly popular, Warwick’s campus still has much to offer, and it’s not just contained to one night of the year. Societies are putting on their own Halloween-themed events: this year, Warwick Student Cinema is showing different Halloween-related films, including cult classic Coraline and the very aptly titled Halloween, during the week commencing 27 October.

Halloween is an integral part of the university experience. This is not just the opinion of Warwick students – many universities are conducting Halloween-themed events at the end of October. For example, the University of Birmingham offers a guided tour of the university’s campus to reveal a selection of ghost stories associated with the university’s past. It seems that the Halloween spirit has not just permeated the West Midlands – up in the north east, the University of Newcastle is promoting “Ghost Walks” and the “Tyneside Cinema All Nighter,” while the University of Sunderland is taking a leaf out of Warwick’s book and celebrating Halloween with a party in the SU, encouraging people to arrive in costume by giving out rewards for “the scariest costume,” “best group costume,” and the “funniest costume.”

While the preferred Halloween festivities at Warwick have shifted from on-campus to off-campus, the willingness to celebrate on 31 October certainly hasn’t. If anything, students’ enthusiasm to embrace Halloween has grown. With people more inclined to join in with the festivities year after year, it will be interesting to observe how Halloween celebrations grow both on and off campus in the coming years.