Halloween Festivities

Me as Puppet Master.

The teachers & students of Inuujaq School celebrated Halloween on Friday, October 30th.  There were regular classes in the morning but the afternoon was reserved for the costume contest, haunted house, and  an assortment of class activities.

            

I didn't cover any new material in my morning classes because everyone was thinking about Halloween.  We watched an age-appropriate horror movie.  The Inuit youth of Arctic Bay really like horror movies.  They always suggest that I buy and stock horror movies in my classroom.  I politely decline the suggestions because horror movies don't fall into the category of educational/social studies movies.  It would be a different story if I was teaching media/film studies.

            

When the lunch bell rang, I borrowed a coworker's SUV and drove home to collect my costumes.  One of my drummers would be borrowing my V for Vendetta costume I wore last year.  My costume this year is the titular character of a 1980s horror movie series called Puppet Master.  I've never watched the series.  I ordered the costume off of the Spirit Halloween website after many hours of browsing their selections.  I also ordered a plastic machete that "bleeds" blood.  The only trouble with the costume was the face mask: it was tight around the nose.  I hoped the outfit would give everyone a good scare.

            

I quickly changed into my costume after I drove back to school.  My drummers began to arrive at 1:15pm.  They were impressed by my choice of costume.  We began moving all the drums, equipment, and music to the gym.  My drummers would kick off the Halloween festivities with a variety of percussion pieces.  More people began to arrive wearing their costumes.  Students and teachers successfully & unsuccessfully guess who I am behind the mask.  I made the guessing game unintentionally easier when I began walking with my drum sticks.  When all the drums were set up at the front of the gym, I instructed my drummers to wait outside.

            

2015 Inuujaq School Halloween Drumline.

We wore our masks to hide our looks of nervousness.  We practiced in the gym several days in advance to get a feel for what the music would sound like in a large open room.  When the gym was full of students, teachers, elders, and parents, the emcee called us to the front.  I led the procession of drummers.  I wanted to say something over the microphone but I changed my mind at the last minute.  We stood behind our drums and looked forward.  I raised my drum sticks and clicked four times.  The drum show began.

             

We played two pieces written by Cassidy Byars and one piece from the University of Massachusetts (UoM).  I downloaded the sheet music for "Storm" and "Navigator" from Cassidy's website, FreeDrumLineMusic.com.  I also found UoM's "Pregame Run Out!" on the Internet.  For the finale, my lead drummer performed a short solo, followed by the entire drum line playing stick clicks.  We bounced our sticks off of the gym floor as the audience clapped and cheered.  Thankfully, none of the sticks snapped.  Our performance lasted five minutes.  I personally congratulated and shook each drummer's hand after the performance.

            

Stick Clicks

The costume contest required each class to walk around the centre of the gym so that the audience got a good look at each costume.  A panel of judges would then a pick a winner from each class.  High school participants were judged as one class.  Winners received gift certificates for the local Co-op store.  The teachers also participated in the costume contest.  All the young kids were mesmerized by my "bleeding" machete and reached up to touch it.  I should have bought a second one.  I was selected as the teacher with the best costume.         

            

A variety of Halloween-themed activities & games had been organized by the elementary & middle school teachers.  A round-robin system was used so that all classes got the opportunity to experience all the activities & games.  The Grade 9 Haunted House was the most popular attraction.  I made sure the drummers helped me put away the instruments before they participated in the games.  Everyone was dismissed at 3pm.             

            

Inuujaq School Gym.

Air Rifle Range

Halloween officially occurs on October 31st, and this year, the day happened to be on a Saturday.  3045 Army Cadet Corps started off the day with a bang by staging a biathlon shoot.  Inuujaq School's gym was converted into an air rifle range with three shooting lanes.  Boxes of Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) were brought to feed the participants at lunch time.  A snack table, offering cupcakes, muffins, & hot chocolate, would be available to the cadets during the relays.

           

Lt. May briefs everyone on how the Biathlon Shoot is to proceed.

Boxes of MREs.

Even though this was a biathlon shoot, the cadets would be running instead of skiing.  Cadets had to run three times and shoot three times.  The running route was a loop around the school area.  Cadets could only shoot five times per grouping target.  The goal was to complete the three runs & shootings in the shortest amount of time.  My job was to be the timekeeper.  Officer Cadet Swoboda & Civilian Instructor (CI) Reid would score the groupings.  Lt. May would run the rifle range.  As the clocked inched closer to noon, CI Reid assisted in the preparation of the MREs.

           

Cdt Paniaq-Taqtu takes aim.

Cdt Akumalik reloads his Daisy Air Rifle.

The cadets who attended the biathlon shoot had a good time.  They were tired from all the running but they had fun.  Everyone cleaned up the gym and played sports in the afternoon.   

            

CI Reid & Cdt. Tilley fire up the Coleman stoves and prepare the MRE lunches.

Trick-or-treating happened between 5 & 7pm.  I changed into my Puppet Master costume and brought out all the Halloween candy I purchased off of Well.ca.  I bought extra candy at the Northern Store because I thought I didn't have enough.  I unlocked the front door, sat on a chair, and waited.  (Knocking on doors isn't an Inuit custom.  You just walk in.)  The weather outside was dark and cold.

            

My Halloween candy stash.

A steady stream of trick-or-treaters, young & old, began to arrive on skidoos, atvs, and trucks.  Unlike down south, everyone is allowed to trick-or-treat.  Who can't resist receiving free candy?  I gave out between 2 - 3 pieces of candy.  (Giving out one piece is cheap & rude in my mind.  Exceptions would be a can of pop or a regular sized chocolate bar).  Several little kids were still scared of my costume and didn't want to walk up to receive candy.  Thankfully, they had their parents as their Plan B's.  The stream of trick-or-treaters stopped at around 6:30.  I still had plenty of candy left.  I changed out of my costume, put on regular clothes, and walked down to the community hall for the annual ugliest costume contest.

            

People arrive at the Community Hall
to view the ugliest costume contest.

The contest began at 7pm.  Fold out chairs had been set up along the walls, creating a large open space in the middle.  The chairs in front of the stage were reserved for the contest participants.  They are allowed to make costumes that are either scary and/or so farfetched that they cause the audience to laugh out loud (lol).  Contestants are encouraged to wear masks so that no one can guess their identities until the very end.  Those who win the cash prizes go up on stage and remove their masks in front of everyone.  I took a seat at the back so that I could film the participants showing off their ugly & crazy costumes.  Contestants were divided into two groups: 12 & under, and 13 & over. 

            

The costumes of the 12 & under group were mostly combinations of two or three costumes.  There was only one that really stood out for me because it was covered with dolls and stuffed animals. 

            

The costumes of the 13 & over group were way out there.  I could spend an entire blog post just describing each individual costume.  Let's just say the older contestants through on whatever they could find and hoped for the best.  There was a lot of variety to look at and the people around me couldn't stop laughing. 

           

When all the cash prizes were handed out to the lucky winners, the last event of the night was the candy toss.  The judges reached into a large cardboard box, grabbed handfuls of candy and tossed them up into the air towards the audience.  Many reached out to catch the candy before they hit the ground.  The judges continued to toss candy until the box was empty.  The floor was picked clean at the end of the toss.  I filmed the entire spectacle with my camera.   

Gandalf from Lord of the Rings (left) and Puppet Master (right).
Gandalf was played by Ryan, the school's media teacher.