Halloween is a great way to end the month of October. Free candy, wearing scary costumes, and a good reason to forget winter is on the way. Or in the case of Arctic Bay, winter is already here. Halloween is well observed in the community. I order my costume and candy at least a month & a half in advance to guarantee their arrival before the big day.
Inuujaq School’s Events Committee began planning activities & an assembly at the beginning of the month. Classes were given a week before October 31 to decorate their doors for a chance to win prizes. (Door decorating contests have been a standard for years. We really like to decorate our doors). The winners would be announced at the assembly. The assembly would feature my high school drumline and a costume contest. High school students decided to organize a haunted house this year and convinced the high school science teacher to hold it in his classroom.
My costume this year was Front Man from the popular tv series Squid Game. I decided to dress as another character from the show after being a Squid Game Guard in 2022. I hear a second season is going to be released at the end of this year. I admit I’ve only watched the first episode of Season 1, so I have a lot of catching up to. From what I’ve been reading in the news, I don’t think Season 2 will be the end of the series. Squid Game has been a runaway hit so I won’t be surprised if a third season will be produced.
The festivities began on the morning of October 31. I photographed all the decorated doors before school began at 8:35am. A selected panel of three judges judged the doors in the late morning and selected the winners before the lunch bell rang. To ensure fairness, classes were divided into groups. The high school haunted house opened its doors after morning recess and was busy until lunch time. The haunted house was restricted to Grades 4 – 12. We didn’t want to scare the younger children for life. My drummers & I played through our concert performance pieces and worked through a few passages that needed extra attention. I assured them the concert would go alright and would be over before they knew it. Our opening set would last at most 6 minutes.
Lunch was extended to 90 minutes so that everyone had time to eat and change into their costumes. I borrowed the principal’s vehicle to drive home, get all my costumes, and bring them back to school. I let students & staff wear my costumes from previous years in case they don’t have one to wear. My drummers have priority because they have to perform and if they’re nervous, they can wear a costume, and no one will know it’s them.
My
lunch time was short because I had to go to the gym and set up the drums. My drummers arrived at 1:15pm and helped me. Everything was ready to go by 1:30pm. The school was full of excitement and people wearing
costumes. Everyone was called down to
the gym at 1:40pm. The assembly began at
1:50pm.
The principal opened the assembly with a short welcome speech. She then introduced the high school drumline. My drummers & I entered the packed gym and took positions behind our drums. My spot was in the middle. I raised my drumsticks, clicked 4 times, and our concert began. We played three drum pieces about a minute long each. Then a few drummers & I played short solos for the audience. And just like that our concert was over in 6 minutes. The audience enjoyed & applauded our performance. My drummers & I breathed sighs of relief under our masks and then moved our drums to the back of the gym. A teacher filmed the performance with my camera. My students & I watched our performance the next day.
The
assembly continued with the costume contest.
Classes walked around the middle of the gym, starting with preschool, displaying
their costumes for everyone. I provided
the Halloween themed background music by playing it from my portable MP3
player. A panel of judges, sitting off
to the side, watched and then picked the best dressed from each class. Teachers, parents, & guardians also
participated. Winners received Co-op
gift cards from the head of the local District Education Authority (DEA).
The
last part of the assembly was the announcing of the winners of the door decorating
contest. The winning classes were
awarded funds to hold pizza/popcorn parties at later dates.
Students
& teachers returned to their classes to engage in Halloween themed
activities until 3:00pm. Parents & guardians
were allowed to be present. Teachers
also distributed Halloween candy to their students. My drummers & I spent the remaining time
moving our instruments & equipment to my classroom. Several high school students also
helped.
Classes
were dismissed early at 3:00pm to give families time to eat and get ready for
trick-or-treating at 5:00pm. The
principal gave me & the large box containing my previous costumes a lift
home. I brought out the boxes of candy I
bought online and filled several bowls.
I placed them near the door and then left the door unlocked. I sat on a chair in costume and waited.
It’s easier to leave the door unlocked then have kids knock. Knocking on doors is a southern custom. Up here, people just walk inside . . . unless the door it locked. Kids started arriving just after 5:00pm. Trick-or-treaters come & go in clusters, and it does get busy at certain times. Many kids are driven around town by their parents/guardians because it’s dark & cold outside. I’m generous when I give out candy, about 4 pieces per person. I also offer candy to parents/guardians. I don’t discriminate. I went through a lot of boxes, but thankfully, I still had leftovers when trick-or-treating finished at 7:00pm. The leftover candy will be used for the year-end candy toss for cadets. (More on that in December).
I changed into regular clothes and made my way to the community hall for the annual Ugliest Halloween Costume Contest. I found a seat at the back and got my camera ready. This event is a staple of Arctic Bay culture. I’ve been attending them since moving here in 2013 and they’re always entertaining to watch. The amount of creativity participants put into their costumes is out of this world. To a first-time observer, it may appear participants just put on whatever they can find in their house, but thought & strategy are invested. One consistent feature of most costumes is the hiding of participants’ faces with masks. You don’t know who they are until the end.
Participants took their seats in front of the stage. Numbers were taped to their backs to make it easier for judges to pick the winners. I wasn’t a judge this year. Participants were divided into 2 groups: 12 & Under, and 13 & Over. Participants were competing for bragging rights & cash prizes.
The costume contest was like the one held at Inuujaq School. The 12 & Under group walked around the middle of the hall, showing everyone their costume creations, while music played from loudspeakers. They sat down and then the 13 & Over group did the same. The one participant, or should I say participants, that stood out from this group was a father & son duo who entered the contest dressed as a very tall woman in a red dress. And I do mean one woman. The father was the bottom half & the son was the top half. I placed my bets on these two winning first place.
The judges announced the winners of 13 & Over group first. They called up 3rd place, 2nd place, and then 1st place to receive their cash prizes. I was right. The father-son duo won over the judges and the audience to claim first prize. The judges then moved onto the 12 & Under group and called up the top 3 winners to receive their cash prizes. The winners removed their masks to the delight of everyone.
The
community assembly ended with a candy toss.
Community hall staff tossed candy into the audience from the main stage
and from the back of the hall. I didn’t
catch any. I was busy filming and had leftover
candy at home to snack on if I wanted to.
I returned home at the end of the toss.
Inuujaq
School students & staff were hyper for the next several days.
