Building a Haunted Hall

Halloween 2012 fell smack in the middle of the week -- a Wednesday. This meant that any Halloween-related activity had to begin and be completed earlier than usual.

The Halloween Carnival at my son's school started (and ended) a couple of hours earlier than in past years. The parish hall, which was transformed into a micro version of an amusement park (minus the rides), had to be prepped and set up the night before. The biggest concern was building the haunted house.

By tradition, the haunted house is handled by the 8th graders. It isn't really a house. It is more like a haunted hall because that's what it is. Black plastic sheets draped a portion of the hallway to give an illusion of a dark, "haunted" place. These sheets had to be hung the Sunday prior, and unfurled on the day of. Unlike the parish hall, the haunted house had to be "built" immediately after classed ended on Wednesday.

As some parents took care of ensuring that the "house" was being built as planned, the others made sure the kids changed to their costumes, were made up with blood and all the fixings, and fed. A daunting task to say the least, especially if you only had an hour to do so. Despite some minor delays, everything went well.

It was fascinating to see how the kids managed to put together this make believe maze to entertain and, maybe, to spook their guests even for just a little bit. Their creativity and their desire to make it a fun experience was truly amazing.

I guess all the screaming and scaring took its toll on the kids. They couldn't wait till it was over. When the signal was given, everyone breathe a sigh of relief. But there was still work to be done. The "house" had to be torn down and everything stored away.

Like clock work, students and parents dismantled the structure and everything else in it. In about 45 minutes, the hallway was cleared, and the props were zipped away to the "dungeon" (a fancy term used in school to refer to a storage room), as if nothing happened.

As the last decoration was stored and the dungeon door closed, so too ended my son's class' 8-year participation in the Halloween Carnival at St. Joseph.