Happy Halloween Toilers! The spookiest holiday of the year arrived at Manual Arts in October 2022.

Students were encouraged prior to the 31st to wear their costumes and show school spirit. Many teachers and staff also arrived with their fun costumes. 

Events had been planned for students to celebrate. During lunch, a costume contest was held to find out who had the best costume. There were lots of creative and fun ones in the crowd! Student favorites included Justin Dominguez as Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, Jancarlo Alvarado as Cartman from South Park, and Andrew Hernandez as The Joker.

In the end, three winners were selected for the students and three winners for staff. For staff, first place was Ms.Duke as Little Red Riding Hood. Second place was Ms. Jones as Dorothy. And third place was Mr.Engle as Donald Trump. 

I asked Ms.Duke what made her come up with the Little Red Riding Hood costume. She said, “It was from a car commercial, and Little Red Riding Hood got hit by a car. I told myself I would be Little Red Riding Hood since I already had a lot of the stuff for it. I then bought the cape and a corset from Amazon.” 

Afterwards, I asked her why she thinks she won first place out of all of the other costumes and she replied with a laugh, “I bribed people with candy!” 

Magnet Senate also planned an event called the “Fall Fest ” for magnet advisories. They spent many weeks preparing games, posters, and even goodie bags. Games included trivia questions, bowling, and “Toss-the-Pumpkin.” There were also activities like crafts and face painting. Playing the games let students earn tickets for a chance to throw a pie at a teacher. At the end, Mr. Aguilar fell victim to pie raffle winners Carlos Merlos and Evelyn Mendoza.

Although some people celebrate October 31st as a fun day to dress up and eat lots of sweets, many people also celebrate it as a day of remembrance. Dia De Los Muertos is a cultural holiday that is celebrated from October 31st to November 2nd. Every year, people set up ofrendas, or offerings, to remember their dead loved ones. Students were asked to bring ofrendas of and for their loved ones, where they were displayed in the auditorium.

“It was pretty cool. They made ofrendas for their loved ones and we also played loteria,” said Tony Rojas, a senior who attended the Dia De Los Muertos event.

Throughout that day, our photographers from Journalism took memorable pictures of the fun costumes for you to see and enjoy!

Gallery • 137 Photos

More events like these are coming soon like the Juvie play, played by the Theater class. There’s also the Winter Concert in which the Band, Harmony and Choir will be performing. Don’t be late!