Brian Jones, managing editor
Tradition has always stood as a staple of Berry’s uniqueness. It’s what makes students and alumni come back to campus, constantly being reminded of Martha Berry’s found vision of community. Traditions that come to mind include events that are catered to seasoned Berry Alumni and faculty, such as Mountain Day, but what about current or newer students that aren’t as cognizant of those traditions?
A student looking forward to a campus event might hark back to what excited them growing up. That could look like nostalgic family traditions, high school past times, et cetera. Among the wide populous of Berry students, one string of childhood tradition ties the majority together: holidays, and timelier, Halloween.
As Rome’s weather has started to grow colder, spooky decorations have started to emerge from boxes and basements, ushering in the Halloween season. A mixture of feelings from the community have surrounded several events due to student popularity. To many, a fan-favorite event surrounding Halloween is Scary Berry, hosted by the Block and Bridle club.
Scary Berry has been a memorable tradition to students such as senior Sara Ferro. She said the event brings back a sense of childlike wonderment to a chaotic, adult lifestyle.
“That was my first Scary Berry,” Ferro said. “Something about that kind of experience brought me back to being a kid on Halloween.”
Ferro said the event brought her back to her roots, transporting her to key Halloween memories growing up.
“I grew up in a small town,” Ferro said. “[There were] small town [things] that you would do, you know, back when your neighbors could just be like, ‘Come on, kids. Go to the back of my trailer with some straw;’ that was a blast.”
Thw nostalgia of Halloween opened Ferro’s eyes to a vaster world of Halloween at Berry. She said the nostalgia she felt started to reverse the occurrence of not partaking in past events.
“It was a great experience and just brought me back to being a kid,” Ferro said. “I really do plan to participate in more of the Berry traditions this year. It’s something that I didn’t do as much the past three years that I really would like to do.”
Festivities around campus have been met with great admiration, but that doesn’t mean that admiration can’t be served with some criticism. Ferro said that while these events can evoke childhood memories, it needs to still be catered to college students.
“It can be really easy to make everything for kids,” Ferro said. “Some of us want to relive those kinds of moments and kind of make it more adult, more up to our standard.”
Director of the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) Brittani Farmer (15C) said that Scary Berry has always been a Berry staple. She said that in the process of transitioning from a student worker to student director, she continually wanted to keep that tradition.
“[Scary Berry] was very big when I was a student,” Farmer said. “We always try to make sure we were coordinating to not plan [other events] on top of each other so that everyone could enjoy spooky vibes and Halloween time.”
Expanding her feedback, Ferro said that a hitch in these events lie in their scheduling, being placed too far from the actual event of Halloween.
“My biggest problem that I’ve noticed is that they usually do costume contests and stuff like that too far off from Halloween,” Ferro said. “Some of us are last minute people. And me, I’m not getting my costume until very last minute.”
Ferro said a consideration for students to have something fun to do every day surrounding the holiday would better suit student wants.
“I would say probably more [things] closer to Halloween,” Ferro said. “Like maybe something the whole week up to Halloween would be really fun.”
She said that it is difficult to cater every type of event on a consistent basis because some planning is up to each organization, not OSI as a whole.
“Organizations have like some pop-up events, sometimes they happen, sometimes they don’t,” Farmer said. “I only have specific control over what [OSI does]. I wish I could perfectly plan everything out so every day there was a fun, spooky Halloween event.”
Despite the change in events that have appeared over the years, there is one rock anchored to Berry’s storied core: Halloween tradition.
Farmer said that as Director of OSI, she wants to keep the feeling of Halloween alive for students, no matter if a certain event happens every year or not.
“I would love to keep the core events the same while also fostering spaces for new things to come up,” Farmer said. “For example, for the Krannert Center Activities Board Halloween Dance, we started handing out candy at the desk [in 2024]. This year we’re going to have a table to hand out candy just to celebrate.”
Reminiscing how at home she felt at Scary Berry, Ferro said this feeling applies to all students, shedding light on the importance of Halloween to these Viking’s inner child.
“[These are events] that make people feel like their traditional Halloweens are still being kept up even when they’re at school and they can’t be with their families,” Ferro said. “You never really grow out of wanting to do festive things for a holiday, and I think there’s nothing wrong with wanting to do that.”
Every October, Farmer said it is so important that this season can never lose its charm, because that very charm is what brings students joy in such a chaotic time of year.
“I think [tradition] gives current students something to look forward to every year: a staple of when everyone can come together,” Farmer said. “Student organizations are doing a really great job of meeting their people and maybe drawing some new members in with
their programming.”
Halloween is a time of year for students to celebrate young adulthood, to express their creativity in costuming or carving and to just enjoy their community. If you are a hesitant reader thinking, “These traditions seem fun, but I’d rather stay in my dorm,” Ferro begs you to reconsider. She said to take the leap this weekend and future Halloweens, regardless of
preconceived expectations.
“Go out, have fun, stop working for a second,” Ferro said. “It’s okay to do that. Enjoy yourself. It’s okay to go do something for Halloween even though you’re a grown adult. Who cares? Do something for yourself. Especially [during] this time of year, it’s really good to decompress by going out and doing something.”