The dining hall at The Peddie School is not crowded all the time. However, on October 31,, the dining hall was full of excited Peddie students, dressed in all the silly or spooky things one could imagine, ready to dig into some Halloween-themed dinner from Peddie Food Service.
The lights in the serving area were off, and the small LED lights shimmered throughout the dark ceiling like the night sky. Spooky pictures were hung across the walls, and trinkets of tiny ghosts were everywhere. The main lines had a mummy hot dog and a bat wing quesadilla, and there was a separate basket of spooky olive pesto. The dessert corner was full of bread pops that looked like a blanket ghost, and there were donuts with googly eyes and plastic teeth that looked like a vampire’s.
“I’m dressed up as Britney Spears,” Tina Tan ’28 said. “For dinner today, we had some buffalo wings with some chips and hot dogs as well. My favorite part was looking at everyone else’s costumes. Some of them were really funny.”
Abby Sun ’28 enjoyed the dinner menu and programs as well. “I’m Maxine from MaXXXine today,” Abby said, “And I ate everything that was in the cafeteria. My favorite part was when people came up to me and recognized who I was.”
Even the PFS servers dressed up, one of them as Marge Simpson with the iconic tall, blue hair. Students were also dressed up in all kinds of costumes. One could see the entire girls swim team dressed up in blue, a group of Teletubbies in fuzzy onesies, and a giant bat wing delicately perched on a student’s back, soaring through the dining hall. The Halloween dinner welcomed all students with or without costumes, as long as they were ready for the fun. A number of day students stayed as well, so that they could enjoy the dinner and watch the costume contests for individuals, pairs and groups.
The winning pair for the costume contest was Masha Nelen ’28 and Shriya Gutta ’28, who dressed up as Masha and the Bear. They were praised for their cute costumes and the way they dressed up as a distinct duo in a TV show, instead of choosing to wear the same costume set together like many other pairs did. The fact that Masha was dressed up as Masha also added an extra layer of creativity.
“We’re Masha and the Bear for Halloween,” Masha said. “Tonight was really fun. For dinner, I had some quesadillas and juice. I had some lemonade, too. It was good as always.”
When asked about her favorite part of the event, Shriya said, “I think my favorite part would be all the decorations and everything they put up. The dining hall looks really pretty tonight.”
After the dinner, there was even more fun prepared for the Peddie students. Prefects from all dorms were ready for Peddie students stopping by to do some trick-or-treating, and the fall play was also opening at 8:00 p.m. The fall play cast entertained a special costume contest in the midst of their performance as well. No matter if you were Britney, Bear or a Busy Peddie Student Who Forgot to Dress Up, Peddie’s Halloween dinner and the events that followed were certainly amazing spectacles.
