By Elizabeth Faragi

Halloween has always been a holiday for kids. From dressing up to trick-or-treating, Halloween is meant for young children to dress up as their favorite characters and wander their neighborhoods in search of gummy worms and chocolate bars. But do these traditions stop once kids grow up? Not at the University of Maryland.

Grace Petretti, a sophomore bioengineering major, dressed up as Gru from the movie “Despicable Me.” Her friend dressed as Vector from the same film. 

“One of my favorite movies ever is Despicable Me,” Petretti said. “I love physics so much and my physics teacher in high school would always talk about direction and magnitude, so I always wanted to be Vector for Halloween. I realized I should make it a duo costume because Gru is awesome too.” 

Eleni Chacharone, a sophomore criminology major, took a similar career-inspired approach for her costume. 

“I am going to be a cop,” Chacharone said. “I’ve always wanted to be a cop for Halloween and I want to go into law enforcement when I’m older.” 

Some students had costumes depending on how easy they were to execute and how cost-efficient they were. Quaid Peatiwala, a sophomore electrical engineering major, said that cost played into what he dressed up as. 

“I chose to be Indiana Jones because I had most of the stuff for it already,” Peatiwala said. 

Junior business major Emily Bontempo had similar thoughts when it came to her costume. She dressed up as Paddington the bear from the film “Paddington,” but she also reused part of her costume on a different night. 

“Since I’m being Paddington Bear and I already have the ears, I’m going to be a bear Beanie Baby,” Bontempo said. “Basically to save money.” 

Max Ladenson, a freshman business major, is dressed as Clark Kent from the film “Superman.” 

“I thought it was pretty easy,” Ladenson said. “My wrestling coach used to call me Clark Kent, so I thought it was an easy costume.”  

Some students wore couples costumes with their partners. Angelina Nunez, a sophomore journalism and technology and information design major, wore a costume to match her girlfriend’s. 

“I am being the white swan,” Nunez said. “My girlfriend and I wanted something really cute for a couple’s costume. We feel like white and black swans are so cute and girly.” 

Nunez also dressed up as Rarity from the TV show “My Little Pony” with her roommates. 

“We were talking about our favorite childhood shows and I was like, I still watch My Little Pony,” Nunez said. “So we all just decided to all dress up as different My Little Pony characters.” 

Most students dressed as something fun for Halloween, but freshman business and business management major Anthony Wilson kept the scary spirit of the holiday alive. 

“I am going to be a creepy clown,” Wilson said. “So I can scare some people.” 

Wilson also dressed up as Steez, a popular social media creator, because he enjoys watching his content online. 

Gabby Georges, a sophomore biology major, dressed up as Catwoman from the Robert Pattinson “Batman” movie. 

“I love anything with Robert Pattinson in it,” Georges said. “[Catwoman] looks so good, so I’m just gonna try to recreate it.” 

Case in point: dressing up for Halloween is still very much alive at this university. A variety of costumes were featured this weekend, and it’s exciting to see the tradition of dressing up continuing into college life.

Featured Image: A skull prop rests atop other Halloween decorations. Photo by Monique James.