Halloween is a favorite holiday for Colgate University students, second to the widely celebrated Colgate Day. The breathtaking fall foliage in Hamilton heightens anticipation for the fun-filled holiday as students spend October consuming apple cider and pumpkin spice coffees.
While the Broad Street houses of Colgate’s Greek life organizations [GLOs] are known for their aesthetically pleasing architecture, their visual appeal is drastically enhanced by their annual Halloween decorations. The brothers of Phi Kappa Tau went above and beyond this year to get the student body excited for Halloween, covering their porch and front lawn with spooky decorations.
According to Phi Kappa Tau member and junior Ian Andrews, all the members put in effort to make the house more welcoming to onlookers, as they were excited to celebrate with their peers this Halloween.
“The carved pumpkins lining the steps are pretty cool,” Andrews said. “They remind me of when I used to carve pumpkins with my family.”
Andrews added that the brothers of Phi Kappa Tau plan on continuing to fill the community with Halloween spirit, as one of the brothers will be sporting a Tinker Bell costume.
Some of the sororities are getting in the spooky spirit, as well, by challenging each other to a Halloween decorating competition for Hamilton kids to enjoy during trick-or-treating on Halloween.
The sisters of Delta Delta Delta expressed that they are kicking the holiday into high gear this year. Senior Lyra Toulon, a member of the sorority’s House Decorating Committee, commented on the creativity and passion her fellow sorority members have shown.
“[Tri] Delta has always been a big Halloween fan. Last year, one of our members, Sloane Daley, took the lead on decorating the interior of our house,” Toulon said. “I woke up one day and came downstairs to pumpkins and ghosts and Halloween lights throughout the whole house. This year she had already done the same when [the Panhellenic Council] announced a [Greek life organization] Halloween competition. Sloane and our house manager, Liv Mikesell, worked so hard to get people together and decorate the outside of our house. It looks so amazing!”
The members of Tri Delta were determined to win the Panhellenic decorating competition. Senior Liv Mikesell spoke about the significant work the members, including junior Caroline Collins and seniors Ellie Markwick and Catie Mooney, contributed to decorating.
“Caroline Collins was able to climb up into the tree with the help of Ellie Markwick to put some spider webbing up there,” Mikesell said, “It was a great team effort. The tree look was completed by Catie Mooney who put a spider in the web!”
“[The other members and I] wanted to create a display that was spooky but not too gory, so as to be mindful to the kids who will be trick-or-treating at the house on Tuesday,” Mikesell said. “[We] have a large porch with a railing, so we knew that we wanted to dress that up with lights and spider webbing. This was not intended, but there seems to be a spiders and ghosts theme with the amount of spider webbing purchased and the amount of little ghosts that line the driveway.”
Phi Delta Theta also engaged in Halloween festivities, as they held a pumpkin carving event on Oct. 20. Junior Owen Fahey, a member of Phi Delt, described the event as a fun way to get in the Halloween spirit and embrace creativity.
“My favorite pumpkin is definitely the one where they made it a pumpkin house for a little pumpkin inside,” Fahey said.
Aside from members of Greek life organizations, students are also decorating their dorms, apartments and townhouses in excitement for the week’s fun and spooky festivities.
