Halloween, October 31, is a well-celebrated festival in many parts of the world, and in recent years, on Tamsui campus. This is the night many otherworldly spirits usually come out to roam. There was no exception on Tamsui campus this year—at least three groups of students held a costume party dressing up as ghosts, witches, ghouls, and zombies parading up and down the campus, terrifying whoever unlucky enough to see them.

The first group that enjoyed frightening other people was the Overseas Students Social Club. Their costumes even stopped the traffic on Shui Yuan Road as they walked by. At the party, without the bonfire, they had a lucky draw instead. Before the draw, they had had several games and the losers had to parade to convenience stores to “scare” people. Not a bad punishment as most of them relished the opportunity of doing so. Before the party ended, they had picked the best dressed character, the most courageous character, and the most popular character among themselves. One of the winners, Kuo Yuan Jeh, was thrilled to be picked and said this Halloween party reminded his childhood ones back home.

The second group that had a costume party was the Department of Information and Communication. Led by one of their lecturers, Mr. Lu Hsian-fu, they paraded the campus dressing up as, vampires aside, poker cards, coins and even post boxes. Apparently, theirs were more creative than scary.

The third group was a bit scarier, with students from the English Department dressing up as witches, skeletons, vampires, Shrek and the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Led by Huang I-min, the Chair of the Department of English, they paraded up the girls’ dormitories and then down to the whole campus terrifying passer-bys, playing “trick of treat” on them. However, it seemed that they were not that scary after all, as many passer-bys who were supposed to be scared asked to take photograph with them. In fact, these spirits from English Dept. had some brilliant ideas. For instance, they stated that whoever could collect autographs or photographs with 8 different characters could be awarded with a bag of special treat. Because of this, they attracted a lot more flashlight than scream.

At the end of the night, the dead from the other world returned to where they belong, allowing peace and calm to reign on campus again. Our students tired, spent, but satisfied also decided to have a rest. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )