Written by Natalie Thomas

Published on October 30, 2014

Halloween is approaching, and young adults are starting to prepare for the holiday. Costume, check. Mask, check. Fake blood, check. Keg… wait, what?  Unfortunately Halloween has been turned into just another excuse to drink the night away; turning this awesome holiday into a regular Friday night, with costumes.

“I usually just go to a friend’s house party or whatever’s going on that night.” says Joshua Lapinski, a 19-year-old student. After all, “New Haven clubs can be a good time too.”

A random party or a sleazy club? Is that really the best that you can do? Traditional Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, arts and crafts and carving jack-o-lanterns. The lack of interest in these things by young adults is understandable- nobody wants to be a kid forever- but the realization that many of them resort to just getting drunk is disheartening. Perhaps the reasoning behind it is that they feel they have no other options? The fact is Connecticut has a huge variety of activities that even the most skeptical young adults will enjoy. A website called www.damnedct.com has an article named “Connecticut Halloween Events – 2014” that features a massive list of activities by county. These activities will help attendees really embrace the meaning of Halloween.

Halloween fans have the choice of seeing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which is perhaps one of the most popular classic cult musical films. Originally released in 1975, it tells a story of a newly engaged couple whose car breaks down in an isolated area and must pay a call to the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-N-Furter and chaos ensues. It holds the record for the longest running stage production in history and on October 30, at 8:30 p.m. at the Avon Theatre in Stamford for only $11 audience members can experience one of the craziest theatrical experiences for themselves. Visit www.avontheatre.org to learn more.

Sabrina Damico, a 24-year-old HCC graduate, has been a fan of the show for years. “I first saw it when I was in high school and I loved it, it’s so kooky and weird but it’s so great and all the people there get so into it. It’s like a lifestyle.”

There is also a trailers for the new movie Annabelle (in theaters now) that has everyone excited to be terrified. What many people don’t know is that the movie is based on real life events. Lorranie Warren is a legendary ghost hunter who came face to face with the real Annabelle doll which still exists!  She is locked away in the Warrens’ Occult Museum located in Monroe, complete with a holy cross and a sign that says, “DO NOT TOUCH!” On October 24, at 7 p.m. Lorranie was at Shelton High School in Shelton discussing her storied career. She goes to the high school every year to tell her stories. Hearing ghost stories are one thing, but hearing true stories from members of a real supernatural investigation sent chills up any viewer’s spine. Visit www.warrens.net to learn more and check out the show next year.

A fan of Annabelle, Paul Thomas, who is a student at Southern Connecticut University attends the show every year. “It’s a great way to get in the mood for Halloween and the stories are really creepy, it’s nuts to think this stuff happened in real life.”

Plus, on October 31, the day of Halloween, between 5-8 p.m. the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is putting on an event named “Say Boo! Halloween Photo Booths at The Aldrich.”The Aldrich’s website aldrichart.org  describes the event, “trick or treat at the Museum and pose in your costume in front of multiple spook-tacular photo booths created by mother-daughter artist teams from Ridgefield’s own National Charity League Nutmeg Chapter. Show off your outfits and disguises, take photos with friends, and leave with a treat. See your image projected on the Museum and post your photo to share with friends and family.” It’s free to attend and gives attendees a little taste of all the best Halloween activities. In the age of the photo obsessed, what’s better than an event based around photo booths?

These are just three of the many alternatives to just partying the night away. From haunted houses and graveyards, to costume parties and spooky book readings the possibilities are endless. Halloween has been celebrated for hundreds of years, the ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc. It’s the spookiest night of the year; don’t waste it getting wasted.