International Students Celebrate Halloween

At the end of last month, children, teenagers, and adults in the United States walked out to the streets to go trick-or-treating on Halloween. The annual holiday is not as popular in Korea, where it is not traditional. However, students at one international school in Korea celebrated Halloween in their own unique way with student-led haunted houses and social events.

On Wednesday, October 29, Tri-M Music Honor Society of Korea International School (KIS) held its annual Halloween social, Cinematic Delirium, along with the National Honor Society, Student Council, Photography Club, and International School Theater Association (ISTA). It was an opportunity for students from different clubs to come together to organize an event for the whole high school.

Although students missed the US-style Halloween activities like trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, apple bobbing, and lighting bonfires, they did get to spend time with their friends watching horror films, visiting haunted houses, and attending costume parties.

Peter Kim, one of the presidents of Tri-M, said, “Tonight was indeed amazing. As I stood in the dark hallway, looking over the haunted house and listening to the screams of the poor groups of people walking between the chair walls, I couldn’t have been prouder.”

Sarah Chin, an officer of the National Honor Society, told JSR, “It was a successful night. People downstairs were all talking about what happened upstairs in the haunted house.”

The event was planned for more than two months with meetings every week. The haunted house was composed of six different rooms with inferences from the horror films “Annabelle,” “Whispering Corridors,” and “Grave Encounters.”

Many students were able to enjoy the Halloween social with their stunning costumes at the dance, the haunted house, and the photo booth.

“It was really embarrassing to walk around the hallway like this,” said Michelle Park, a junior who dressed up as Jasmine from the Disney movie “Aladdin.”

“But it got okay after a while,” she added.